A Million Miles From Nowhere

LIST MANIA 2011

2011-12-31T14:59:00.016+01:00

I saw about 125 films in theatres this year, most of them at the 4 film festivals I attend yearly (International Film Festival Rotterdam, Cinema Novo Film Festival in Bruges, L’Âge d’Or/Filmvondsten in Brussels and the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent). As usual, I make a TOP 20 of my favourite films of the year and list the other ones I really liked. You will found the latter films on the Batarang! website soon.

1. MISTÉRIOS DE LISBOA (TV series/6 episodes) (Raúl Ruiz)
2. THE TURIN HORSE (Béla Tarr)
3. ELENA (Andrei Zvyagintsev)
4. BLUE VALENTINE (Derek Cianfrance)
5. WINTER'S BONE (Debra Granik)
6. LE GAMIN AU VELO (Jean Piere & Luc Dardenne)
7. THE ARTIST (Michel Hazanavicius)
8. BLACK SWAN (Darren Aronovsky)
9. THE TREE OF LIFE (Terrence Malick)
10.MELANCHOLIA (Lars Von Trier)

11. TUESDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS (Radu Muntean)
12. 13 ASSASSINS (Takashi Miike)
13. AURORA (Cristi Puiu)
14. ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
15. BAL/HONEY (Samih Kapanoglu)
16. WU XIA (Peter Chan)
17. NORWEGIAN WOOD (Anh Hung Tran)
18. ESSENTIAL KILLING (Jerzy Skolimowski)
19. HORS SATAN (Bruno Dumont)
20. IF I WANT TO WHISTLE, I WHISTLE (Florin Serban)

***
Here are my 10 favourite new albums of 2011. As opposed to movies, I feel that there are still a bunch of great albums that I haven’t heard yet or of whose existence I am ignorant. Thus, this list gives an overview of the albums I enjoyed the most in 2011.

1. COIN COIN Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres - MATANA ROBERTS
2. El Camino - THE BLACK KEYS
3. David Comes To Life - FUCKED UP
4. Let England Shake - P.J. HARVEY
5. Ease & Delight - BLACKUP
6. Castlemania - THEE OH SEES
7. Taledragger - T-MODEL FORD AND GRAVELROAD
8. Dirge - WORMROT
9. Arabia Mountain - BLACK LIPS
10.Scandalous - BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS

***
As far as I am concerned, the whole punk rock & roll scene fell apart after the sad demise of Jay Reatard in January 2010. The only live bands that matter today are still the ones that did so yesterday. I didn’t see any new & exciting punkrock bands this year, only reproductions. Fortunately, I got lucky because some friends of mine started a band that I totally dig and that I can see often around on stages over here…

1. THEE OH SEES (Charlatan, Ghent + AB, Brussels)
2. EILEN JEWELL (Manuscript, Ostend)
3. NEUROTIC DEATHFEST (O13, Tilburg)
4. STONE RIVER BOYS (Porgy & Bess, Terneuzen)
5. CHARLES BRADLEY & LEE FIELDS (Vooruit, Ghent)
6. FUCKED UP (Trix, Antwerp)
7. THE FRESH & ONLYS + TY SEGALL (Trix, Antwerp)
8. TAMIKREST (4AD, Diksmuide)
9. EDDY MITCHELL (Wex, Marche-en-Famenne)
10.RICHARD THOMPSON (AB, Brussels)

I also really liked PO'GIRL (N9), TYVEK (Pit's), JOHNNY THROTTLE (De Kreun), DWAYNE DOPSIE & THE ZYDECO HELLRAISERS (N9), ROTTEN SOUND (Trix), SLIM CESSNA'S AUTO CLUB (Trix), PERE UBU (4AD), CRYSTAL STILTS (Charlatan), THE SONICS (AB), SONNY VINCENT (DNA), CONJUNTO ANGOLA 70 (Zuiderpershuis), BLACKUP (Charlatan + Pit's) and last but not least FATOUMATA DIAWARE (N9).

***
Each year, I gotta feeling that I saw about 95% of the movies that matter to me and that I heard about 85% of the albums that I dig. Although I love to read, I am afraid I only read about 5% of the worthwile books released this year. Moreover, most of the books I did read this year were issued before 2011. If I have one wish for 2012, it’s enough time to read 30 books. That’s my goal for 2012!

1. De nazi en de kapper - EDGAR HILSENRATH
2. Waar de tijgers thuis zijn - JEAN-MARIE BLAS DE ROBLÈS
3. Big Bosoms and Square Jaws/ The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film - JIMMY McDONOUGH
4. Ingmar Bergman: De Lust en de Demonen - MIKAEL TIMM
5. A Rocket In My Pocket: The Hipster's Guide To Rockabilly Music - MAX DECHARNE
6. Het schijnbestaan - JOSE SARAMAGO
7. Reis naar het verleden - STEFAN ZWEIG
8. Nachttrein naar Lissabon - PASCAL MERCIER
9. Ademschommel - HERTA MÜLLER
10.Diego en Frida - J.M.G. LE CLEZIO

A next post will list my favourite reissues and compilations of 2011, as well as my favourite DVD's. Stay tuned and oh- by the way: HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

2011-11-07T20:47:00.021+01:00

Fantastic Voyage recently released a terrific compilation called JUMPING THE SHUFFLE BLUES: JAMAICAN SOUND SYSTEM CLASSICS 1946-1960. It is no secret that the Jamaican Sound Systems played American R&B at the end of the 1940s-50s which ultimately lead to the birth of ska music. Some R&B songs like Jack McVea’s “Two Timin’ Baby” almost do sound like genuine ska. Next to excellent pre-ska R&B songs by well-known artists like Louis Jordan, T-Bone Walker, Jimmy McCracklin, Wynonie Harris, Rosco Gordon and Little Willie Littlefield, there are many wonderful boppers by obscure artists like Felix Gross, Gene Coy, The Ray-O-Vacts and Earl Curry. The booklet features informative liner notes and detailed song-by-song info. An essential purchase at a very affordable price!

Fans of Hex Dispensers, Wipers and New Christs take note as friends of mine have just released their debut album on the German Screaming Mimi label and it’s a scorcher of a record! BLACKUP’s recent live shows were very promising so I am glad the record doesn’t disappoint to say the least. Next to some ace songwriting, great vocals and a powerful production, you get 180g heavyweight vinyl in a thick cardboard sleeve and a free cd! Talkin’ about a great deal for 13,00 EUR! I am pretty sure that “Ease & Delight” is gonna end up high in my TOP 10 of 2011!

If you dig old-time music, you know by now that Dust-to-Digital, Tompkins Square and Old Hat Records deliver the goods. I keep on buying every Old Hat Records compilation because so far I have never been disappointed. Their latest gem is called BARBECUE ANY OLD TIME - Blues From The Pit 1927-1942 and it might be their greatest collection yet! If you like those fabulous Roots&Blues compilations that Columbia/Legacy used to issue during the 1990s, don’t hesitate to add BBQ ANY OLD TIME to your collection. Of course there’s lotsa risqué blues and double entendres; lyrics like “Pepper Sauce Mama, you make my meat red hot” surely aren't advertisements for BBQ sauce! A five star release!

Tompkins Square has issued some wonderful compilations too during the last couple of months. This May Be My Last Time Singing : Raw African-American Gospel on 45RPM 1957-1982, To What Strange Place : The Music Of The Ottoman-American Diaspora, 1916-1929, Mama, I'll Be Long Gone: The Complete Recordings of Amede Ardoin 1929-1934 and Bloody War : Songs 1924-1939 all deserve highest recommendations for old-time music lovers!

Dust-to-Digital in turn, releases the most overwhelming compilations. Both Baby, How Can It Be? Songs of Love, Lust and Contempt from the 1920s and 1930s and Never a Pal Like Mother: Vintage Songs & Photographs of the One Who’s Always True are precious gems that deserve your attention.

Mississippi Records has recently issued an obscure MAHMOUD AHMED record called ‘Jeguol Naw Betwa’. The sleeve is a great reproduction of the original release but features no extra info. For the record: “Marie Gela” is mentioned as the third song on Side two but is in fact the last song of Side one. Thank you for your attention. I don’t think all of these songs have been reissued before as I can’t find some on my Mahmoud Ahmed Ethiopiques cds but this is prime Mahmoud Ahmed on vinyl so fans should pick this one up as soon as possible before the record is sold out like most of Mississippi Records’ back catalogue. Timeless Ethiopean soul music!

Nascente has just released a great budget 2cd by KANDO BONGO MAN with tracks recorded during the golden age of Parisian soukous. This is heavy party music that should set any dance floor on fire! Browsing through Nascente’s online catalogue and subsequently ordering cds at PLAY.COM is one of my favorite wastes of time! Lotsa quality for little money!

Two great Cramps releases have seen the light of day recently. ‘Live At Club 57!! 1979 plus 9 Demos! 1977-79’ is a great gatefold 2lp released by what I think is a bootleg label called Moonshine Records. The sound may be rather thin but the vocals are clear and the show is awesome. The liner notes consist of 2 interviews with The Cramps from early & obscure fanzines ('Thrills' and 'Damage'). Like when Lux Interior cites Screaming Jay Hawkins: “I don’t care if you want me, I’m yours right now!”. Let’s hope this great bootleg album will be yours soon as it might be the best Cramps live performance on record!

The second Cramps bootleg that I highly recommend is called MEMPHIS POSEURS: THE 1977 DEMOS. These are the infamous Alex Chilton produced sessions recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, TN that would end up in a less raw version on the band’s mighty 1980 debut album ‘Songs The Lord Taught Us’. Awesome!

Sometimes you pick an album out of your music collection that you forgot you once bought and then you start listening to it and can’t put it aside. Such recently happened to me with a cd from Italy’s THE RIPPERS that compiles their first album from 2005 on Screaming Apple Records with the band’s first 3 singles (2002/2003). It’s wonderful fucked up garage punk & roll, recorded live in their garage and the perfect antidote to a stressful day at the office!

I could tell you some more about other great music that I really enjoyed during the last couple of weeks but time turns out to be my enemy again so I leave you with a great music video by Nahawa Doumbia whose first album from 1982 has just been re-released on vinyl by the fine folks from the Awesome Tapes from Africa blog! Enjoy and don't forget: life is too short to listen to mediocre music!

FLANDERS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL GHENT

2011-10-14T12:31:00.019+02:00

DAY ELEVEN

THE FUTURE (Miranda July) ***

July’s second long-feature really exceeded my expectations: charming, touching and witty.

BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD (Liz Garbus) **

Docu about the world’s greatest chess player.

MAMA AFRICA (Mika Kaurismäki) ***

A great tribute to South African singer and anti-apartheid activist Miriam Makeba.

HALT AUF FREIER STRECKE (Andreas Dresen) ***

An emotionally intense, dramatically compelling account of a dying man’s last months.

DECONSTRUCTING DAD (Stan Warnow) ***

An excellent exploration of the life of musician/inventor Raymond Scott by his son Stan Warnow.

DAY TEN

POILET AUX PRUNES (Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronaud) **

A mix of live action and animation and a paper-thin plot.

ONE LIFE (Michael Gunton & Martha Holmes) **

A simple best of of the BBC Life series. What’s the deal?

THIS IS NOT A FILM (Jafar Panahi) **

This film follows a day in the life of Panahi while under house arrest for criticising the regime.

METROPOLIS (Fritz Lang) 0

1984 mutilation of Fritz Lang’s masterpiece from 1927 because of a horrible disco crap score by fuckin’ Giorgio Moroder. Ouch!

DAY NINE

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE (Sean Durkin) **1/2

Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult.

HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI (Takashi Miike) ***

A great but rather redundant remake of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 masterpiece.

MEDIANERAS (Gustavo Taretto) *

Buenos Aires-set love story that builds to the moment its central characters meet. Rather boring.

PUTTY HILL (Matthew Porterfield) *

Pretty difficult to like a documentary when the mutterings of the characters are hardly audible and even drowned out by background noises.

DAY EIGHT

THREE AND A HALF (Naghi Nemati) **

Decent film about three women from Teheran who want to leave Iran.

ELENA (Andrei Zvyagintsev) *****

An impeccably controlled drama with a majestic score by Philip Glass. A stunning film.

JANE EYRE (Cary Joji Fukunaga) ***

An engaging BBC Films production based on the novel by Charlotte Bronte.

A LETTER TO ELIA (Kent Jones & Martin Scorcese) ***

A lyrical ode to Scorsese’s filmmaking idol Elia Kazan.

DAY SEVEN

SKOONHEID (Oliver Hermanus) **1/2

South African director Oliver Hermanus portrays a conservative Afrikaner who permanently suppresses his homosexual feelings. Tough shit!

MILDRED PIERCE (Michael Curtiz) ****

Mildred Pierce (1945) is based on the novel by James M. Cain and has become a film noir classic.

MON PIRE CAUCHEMAR (Anne Fontaine) ***1/2

A wonderful French comedy featuring Isabelle Huppert, Benoît Poelvoorde and André Dussollier.

JESS + MOSS (Clay Jeter) **

A decent American low-budget indie.

DAY SIX

LES NEIGES DU KILIMANDJARO (Robert Guédiguian) *

Maybe if I’m old and senile, I will like this kind of PC happy-go-lucky movies. I sincerely hope not.

E-LOVE (Anne Villacèque) 0

The worst French film I have seen in ages. “Inutile de se déranger” like the French say!

THE TURIN HORSE (Béla Tarr) ****

Still in a league of its own.

UFO IN HER EYES (Guo Xiaola) ***

This film manages to be both funny and touching. A Chinese director who uses an Aster Aweke track in her movie? Respect!

DAY FIVE

WEEKEND (Andrew Haigh) **

The problem with most gay movies is that they are of lesser interest for the non-gay. This one is pretty decent though.

BLEAK NIGHT (Sung-Hyun Yoon) ***

Interesting teen angst film by a 29-year old South Korean.

L’HIVER DERNIER (John Shank) **1/2

A promising debut by this Belgian director with North American roots although the film is too depressing and the end unconvincing.

BEYOND (Pernilla August) ***

A strong feature debut about domestic violence and alcoholism.

DAY FOUR

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (Lynne Ramsay) ***

A gripping story but the cinematography is too obvious which makes the film artificial and even caricturesque at times. Half a star extra for the soundtrack!

SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE (Ingmar Bergman) ****

Cinema version of a 1973 Swedish TV series that explores the disintegration of a marriage. Classic stuff!

THE MOUNTAIN (Ole Giæver) *1/2

An oversimplified film about two lesbians who are hiking the mountains to deal with the sudden death of their child. Disappointingly weak!

CIGÁN (Martin Šulík) ***

A charming and engaging gypsyfilm.

DAY THREE

TOKYO KOEN (Shinji Aoyama) ***

Although chances are low that Aoyama will make another landmark film like EUREKA, his latest is an absorbing film based on a novel by Yukiya Shoji. Very Japanese both in style and content.

WU XIA (Peter Chan) ****

Fantastic action movie in the line of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. A must-see!

AUS DEM LEBEN DER MARIONETTEN (Ingmar Bergman) ****

Ingmar Bergman’s second German produktion from 1980. Down to the bone!

ECO-PIRATE: THE STORY OF PAUL WATSON (Trish Dolman) **1/2

An interesting docu about the radical ecologist Paul Watson who has been hunting whalers for over 30 years. Of little interest on the big screen though.

DAY TWO

THE MAGIC TRIP (Alex Gibney, Alison Ellwood) *

If you wanna see an annoying bunch of pre-hippies driving a bus through the States, then this compilation of 16mm-shooting footage might be your thing. As far as I am concerned, I couldn’t care less about this “invaluable document of this extraordinary piece of American history”.

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY (Tomas Alfredson) **

I always found John le Carré books food for nerds. So is this adaption of one of his espionage novels by Tomas ‘Let The Right One In’ Alfredson. The movie is getting rave reviews everywhere. I however found it old-fashioned and rather boring. But then again, whodunits ain’t my cup-of-tea.

CORMAN'S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL (Alex Stapleton) ***

An interesting docu on Roger Corman with great film excerpts and funny anecdotes. Amazing to hear that schlockmeister Corman handled the American distribution of films by Antonioni, Bergman and Fellini just because he really wanted people to see their great arthouse movies. Corman rules!

ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (Nuri Bilge Ceylan) ****

Not a good idea to see Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest gem as a late-night screening because one has to be very alert of details during the movie's 157-minute running time. The thought of a second screening urges itself upon me because this is a unique film.

DAY ONE

MISTÉRIOS DE LISBOA (Raul Ruiz)

After the screening of all 6 episodes of Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz latest and last film - the devastatingly beautiful Mystérios de Lisboa - I was eager tot see the 4,5 hours long-feature film version. Unfortunately, the TV-series suffers terribly from its “shortcut” as subplots become muddled and the whole film - especially the second part – feels very inconsistent. A real shame! Who needs a 4,5 hours feature film of this landmark TV-series anyway?

2011-07-24T16:49:00.008+02:00

I recently blasted THE NOMADS’ ‘Where The Wolf Bane Blooms’ mini-album from 1983 out of my car speakers and was surprised to find out that the record hasn’t aged a bit in almost 30 (?!?!!) years! A friend of mine complained about "that horrible & clean 80s production" but I don’t think that the sound suffers from its production at all. The record still kicks ass and is on a par with other essential mini-albums from that period like THE CRAMPS’ ‘Gravest Hits’ (recorded at Ardent Studio, Memphis in 1977 and produced by Alex Chilton) and THE SCIENTISTS’ ‘Blood Red River 1982-1984’.

Jazzman Records has released another volume in their explorations into regional US funk obscurities called CALIFORNIA FUNK: RARE FUNK 45S FROM THE GOLDEN STATE. This new collection delivers 21 of the rarest, hardest and most coveted funk sounds from California, recorded 1968-77. Now Again Records has the exclusive license for these essential funk collections in the States and I must say I prefer these releases to the European ones as the artwork is much more appealing. Also available as a double vinyl album; both formats have extensive liner notes. Great stuff!

With all those beautifully packaged old time music compilations on Dust-to-Digital, Tompkins Square and Old Hat Records, one would forget that Document Records was one of the forebears of reissuing old time American folk music. Although their poor packaged albums aren’t really inviting, the music is mostly excellent. NASHVILLE 1928 for example features terrific performances by obscure bands like Paul Warmack & His Gully Jumpers and some Blind Joe Mangrum-Fred Shriver. Funny to read that the few tracks by the 6 featured bands are the complete recorded works! Check Document Records’ website for more info here.

San Francisco’s FRESH & ONLYS recently opened for TY SEGALL in Antwerp and I was really impressed by their great songs and sound. The band managed to mix a dark Flying Nun pop-sound with some raw Gun Club-style guitar sounds. Really excellent! Afterwards, I bought their latest record on In The Red and it has been on constant rotation over here in the last few weeks. In the meantime, the FRESH & ONLYS released a follow-up mini-album ‘Secret Walls’ on Sacred Bones that I have yet to hear. Don’t miss them when they play your neighborhood!

Two new & essential African reissues: L’ORCHESTRE KANAGI DE MOPTI’s eponymous album on Kindred Spirits Records from Holland and the RAIL BAND’s ‘Buffet Hotel de la Gare’ on Superfly Records from Paris. A great introduction to L’ORCHESTRE KANAGI DE MOPTI’s famous band leader SORRY BAMBA has been released by Thrill Jockey Records both on cd and 2lp. The RAIL BAND lp reissue on Superfly Records is even superior to the recent Bärenreiter album reissued by Mississippi Records, but unfortunately very expensive! The album reissued by Superfly Records was originally released in 1973 (RCAM 013373), the one Mississippi Records reissued dates from 1970 (BM 30 L 2606). For an exhaustive discography of Malian vinyl recordings, check Graeme Counsel’s giant’s labour here.

‘Rebellión Tropical’ is a wonderful compilation that teams up Colombia’s original bad boys of tropical music FRUKO and JOE ARROYO. FRUKO Y SUS TESOS became the premier powerhouse salsa band at Discos Fuentes in the 70s and 80s and served as a career starter for a series of talented vocalists and musicians, including JOE ARROYO. I am lucky to have witnessed both bands in top condition: FRUKO at the Antilliaanse Feesten in 2004 and JOE ARROYO at the Open Tropen Festival God knows when. CD 1 highlights FRUKO’s recordings, CD 2 those of JOE ARROYO: over 150 minutes of pure vintage jungle heat to get any rebellion started! An essential collection and dirt-cheap too!

Like most young parents who lived in the 70s, mine too owned a NEIL DIAMOND record (1973’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull - duh). Although I did want to like it at the time, I simply couldn’t. After all, the other records (Demis Roussos, Nana Mouskouri, The Cats, BZN, Engelbert Humptydumpty) proved that my parents had rather poor taste in music. A recent favorable cd review however got me interested in NEIL DIAMOND’s formative years so I bought that particular cd called THE BANG YEARS 1966-1968. I am really impressed. At the end of the 60s, Neil Diamond was just another struggling young artist which makes his music pure & interesting. I’ll probably stick to this only cd as far as NEIL DIAMOND goes, but this shouldn’t spoil the greatness of this great song-writing collection. Oh wait, I think I need this one too!

I’ll leave you with an 8Tracks compilation I made yesterday to spice up my Mexico/Guatemala trip. These might be dangerous & upsetting times but the fact that I will be able to listen to my mix in some remote jungle lodge (do they have internet access in Tikal?) makes me pretty happy to live in the 21st century! For those interested, here's a blog where I hope to post info about our family trip once in a while (in Dutch only).

2011-07-10T17:12:00.023+02:00

I went to see TAMIKREST at the mighty 4AD club in Diksmuide last Wednesday. I was accompanied by my wife and oldest son (11) who really dug his “first ever rock show”. TAMIKREST are desert musicians from the Western-Sahara but they have an irresistible hypnotic groove that rocks for sure! I bought their new album afterwards called 'Toumastin' and it’s a real winner! Great music, a beautiful sleeve and 180 gram vinyl: thank you very much Glitterhouse Records!!!

This morning, I really enjoyed TAV FALCO & THE UNAPPROACHABLE PANTHER BURNS’ latest album which I think is released by Glitterhouse Records’ sub-label Stag-O-Lee Records although my vinyl copy states Bang! Records. Whatever, it’s a great album that no Tav Falco fan can afford to miss!

Bang! Records by the way has just released a deluxe gatefold double vinyl edition of the NEW CHRISTS’ ‘Lower Yourself’ album, limited to 1000 copies. Originally recorded and released in 1997 by Citadel Records, the record has been remastered with new artwork done all under Rob Younger’s (Radio Birdman) supervision in order to implement a still stronger sound and presence. Wonder why I mention this reissue? The NEW CHRISTS 2009 album ‘Gloria’ was my record of the year and proof that the NEW CHRISTS still rule after all those years!

I was recently diggin’ through the used records bins during a lunch break and found a copy of VIEIRA E SEU CONJUNTO’s ‘Lambada’ record, originally released by Stern’s Records in 1988. It was one of the first world music releases that became available in the West and one of the few that I forgot to buy at the time. I am glad I picked the record up recently because it’s a wonderful album full of inventive guitar playing and subtle rhythms. I am sure you can still find a copy on eBay for little money…

Ziya Ertekin (40) is a DJ from Rotterdam who prefers to call himself a musical anthropologist. For years, he travels the world around in search of old records and has released 2 cd compilations so far under the moniker Blue Flamingo. On ‘Congo Jazz’ he delivers 3 collections of old time world music: Jungle Crawl, Congo Jazz and That Old Religion. The first mixes Hot Jazz with Afro/Jungle Exotica, the second mix has old 78rpm tunes from the Congo while the third mix treats the listener to some great black gospel. I also bought his previous collection called ‘Blue Flamingo 78 r.p.m.’ which features 1930s Oriental Flavored Jazz-Exotica, 1930s-1940s Spanish & French Caribbean and 1950s Mambo & Rumba Flavored Rhythm & Blues. Both cd’s are available at a great price from Excelsior Records in Holland. I recently received a mail from Ertekin in which he tells me that he is just back from a 3 months backpackers adventure in Africa so I suppose he will treat us soon to some more exciting primal sounds from the jungle!

For one reason or another, I can’t really get into DAVILLA 666s latest album on In The Red Record (‘Tan Bajo’) but their previous mini album ‘12” EP’ on Rob’s House Records is definitely a must buy! I wish “Ohhh” and “Dos O Tres” were issued on a 7-inch so I could include them in my jukebox. Killer tunes!

Sundazed Records has released 2 amazing collections recently: SIR DOUGLAS QUINTET’s ‘The Mono Singles ’68 – ‘72’ and ‘The MGM Singles’ by SAM THE SHAM AND THE PHARAOHS. Both gatefold double vinyl, rather expensive but absolutely essential!

‘Beautiful Songs: The Best of JAD FAIR’ is a great 3cd digipack collection for a Jad Fair layman like myself. Cheap and great food for the iPod!

I recently found the Ace Records Catalogue 2011 in my mailbox and boy was I happy: 269 pages of musical delights, reissued w/ style and the best sound! Too many recent highlight but don’t miss the 3cd collection THE MUSIC CITY STORY, SWAMP DOGG’s ‘A Singles Collection 1963-1989’ and CANDI STATON 2cd ‘Evidence: The Complete Fame Records Masters’!

The other quintessential European roots re-issue label Bear Family Records has recently released THE BRISTOL SESSIONS: THE BIG BANG OF COUNTRY MUSIC 1927-1928, a 5 CD & 120-Page Book. Here are the facts that I copy from a Bristol Sessions Vol.1 RCA cd from 2002: “In July, 1927 Ralph Sylvester Peer came to Bristol, Tennessee with a carload of state of the art recording gear and high expectations. Peer, a record business veteran, stumbled into Southern music during his days producing music for OKeh Records. Now employed by Victor Records, he was in the field recording all the rural Southern musicians he could find. In Bristol, Peer recorded 76 songs by 19 different acts, two of them fountainheads: the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. Along with brilliant music by other more obscure artists, the music of the Bristol sessions continues to resonate into the 21st Century.”

Need I say more?

That’s it for today. Expect a new post this week!

PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

2011-05-17T20:56:00.016+02:00

Holy cow! It’s been quite some time since I posted something on this godforsaken blog of mine so let’s catch up with 5 personal highlights of recent times:

1. THE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM 2011

Another year full of surprises and discoveries! I had never heard before of Spanish filmmaker in focus Agustí Villaronga but both films I saw in Rotterdam – TRAS EL CRISTAL from 1987 and his latest PA NEGRE - turned out to be fascinating masterpieces. The opening shots of PA NEGRA alone justify the price of admission! Two other films I really enjoyed (rather to my surprise) were the latest films by Miiki Takashi. Although both very different in style, ZEBRAMAN 2: ATTACK ON ZEBRA CITY and 13 ASSASSINS delivered exhilarating adventures of pure cinematic joy! Other films I really loved were COLD FISH (from Sono Sion, the Japanese filmmaker of the frenzied four-hour cult drama LOVE EXPOSURE from 2008), Jerzy Skolimowksi’s fascinating ESSENTIAL KILLING, Kelly Reichardt’s powerful low budget western MEEK’S CUTOFF, the radical but fascinating 3-hours documentary THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCU, the upsetting AURORA (from the maker of THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU) and King Hu’s LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN from 1979. But the real highlight for me this year was the screening of all 6 episodes (330 min) of Chilean master Raúl Ruiz’ breathtaking MISTERIOS DE LISBOA (Mysteries of Lisbon). This elegant and fascinating costume drama is based on a 19th-century epic novel by Camilo Castelo Branco and tells about the bastard son Joao who wants to know who his parents are. A cinematic revelation of the highest order!

2. NEUROTIC DEATHFEST

Now that it seems like the whole garagepunk scene is dying a slow death, I thought it would be a good idea to check out some extreme metal music. Little did I know that I would see over 5 brilliant shows in 2 days! MAGRUDERGRIND from example - a trio from Washington DC that plays the kind of furious grindcore that sets every place on fire - is a band that the much-missed John Peel would have cherished! Maltese death/grind formation BEHEADED celebrated their 20th anniversary in style (I myself had never heard of the band before ;-)) with a truly merciless & massive set: power where you need it! Don’t think because the festival calls itself ‘Europe’s Premier Indoor Extreme Metal Event’ that the scope is very narrow. Swedish BIRDFLESH for example could best be described as ‘The Dwarves of Grindcore’ (including crazy stage antics and stoopid lyrics) while MASTER (formed way back in 1983 (!)) sounded like ‘Motörhead Going Death metal’. Most bands however had one thing in common: they were mean, merciless and very powerful! Add other great shows by a mean-as-fuck PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT (!), Italy’s furious CRIPPLE BASTARDS and excellent headliners OBITUARY and AUTOPSY and you have a terrific festival. Count me in next year!!!

3. BUYING A JUKEBOX + SELECTING THE SINGLES!

Yes, I finally bought one: dirt cheap and wonderful! (go ahead, call me a lucky bastard!). I will soon post some pictures and list my 80 jukebox ‘hits’! Oh, and did I tell you that I paid more for my 7-inches than for my Wurlitzer? Thanks to Norton Records, Crypt Records, Ernie B’s Reggae and various eBay retailers for delivering a great & quick mailorder service!

4. INDULGING MYSELF INTO MAYAN CULTURE

In preparation for my 4 and a half weeks family trip to Mexico & Guatemala this August, I am indulging myself into ancient Central American civilization by means of books (John Lloyd Stephens’ INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN YUCATAN, David Drew’s THE LOST CHRONICLES OF THE MAYA KINGS, Taschen's huge book on DIEGO RIVERA and Michael E. Moseley’s THE INCAS AND THEIR ANCESTORS), films (Werner Herzog’s FITZCARRALDO, Mel Gibson’s APOCALYPTO and Terence Malick’s THE NEW WORLD) and music of course. But more about that in another post!

5. RECORDS, RECORDS, RECORDS

I have been buying a shitload of records so far this year. I am sure you are really going to discover some essential music in an upcoming post so stay tuned!

LIST MANIA 2010

2011-01-02T15:29:00.007+01:00

I only saw 2 absolutely brilliant masterpieces on the big screen in 2010: Edvard Yang’s A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY from 1991 and Yoshida Kiju’s EROS + MASSACRE from 1969. Both were screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It’s hard to pick 10 favourite movies out of the 126 I saw in various theatres in 2010. Here’s an attempt:

1. HOW I ENDED THIS SUMMER
2. ENTER THE VOID
3. UN HOMME QUI CRIE
4. SPRING FEVER
5. THE KILLER INSIDE ME
6. THE ROAD
7. ALAMAR
8. TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE
9. TOURNEE
10.LES AMOURS IMAGINAIRES

As far as albums go, I became somehow addicted to EILEN JEWELL’s 'Sea of Tears' but since it was released in 2009, I couldn’t give it a pole position here. Same goes with JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN's 'Steal My Mind' on Certified PR Records. I think I could get away with putting AZ238 at n°1 although the album was officially released in December of 2009.

1. AZ238 - TOKYO ELECTRON
2. Tin Boat to Tuna Town - DRUID PERFUME
3. The Black Jaspers – THE BLACK JASPERS
4. Reform School Girl – NICK CURRAN& THE LOWLIFES
5. Soft Crash – NOTHING PEOPLE
6. Onecept - DAVID S. WARE
7. City of Rotten Eyes – OVERNIGHT LOWS
8. The Goodnight Loving Supper Club - THE GOODNIGHT LOVING
9. Defrosting of DEMONS CLAWS
10.Bad Lady Goes To Jail – JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN III

As usual, I wish I could’ve read more books last year. Fortunately, the ones I read were almost all top-notch.

1. Zee en Aarde – ÁLVARO MUTIS
2. De Wilde Detectives – ROBERTO BOLAÑO
3. Alma Mahler-Werfel – OLIVER HILMES
4. Revolutionary Road – RICHARD YATES
5. The Road – CORMAC McCARTHY
6. De tuin van de Finzi-Contini's – GIORGIO BASSANI
7. Nero, de bloedige dichter – DEZSÖ KOSZTOLÁNYI
8. 1q84 – HARUKI MURAKAMI
9. La carte et le territoire – MICHEL HOULLEBECQ
10.Die gore klerezooi in de Via Merulana – CARLO EMILIO GADDA

I missed some shows I really wanted to see this year (TY SEGALL, ROKY ERICKSON, THEE VICARS+THEE SPIVS). Here are the ones that blew my mind:

1. EYEHATEGOD (Minus One, Ghent)
2. SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS (L’Aéronef, Lille)
3. ROTTEN SOUND (Neurotic Deathfest, Tilburg)
4. THEE OH SEES (Trix, Antwerp)
5. EILEN JEWELL (Ha’, Ghent)
6. MAHMOUD AHMED+ALEMAYEHU ESHETE (ZPH, Antwerp)
7. WOLF EYES (Netwerk, Aalst)
8. THE PALADINS (Sjock-festival, Gierle)
9. SANTOS & LUIS WILDFIRE (Rockin’ at the Drive-in Barn, Oosteeklo)
10.NAPALM DEATH (L’Aéronef, Lille)
11.WHEELS ON FIRE (Pit's, Kortrijk - oops, that's 11!)

One of these days, I will publish my favourite COMPILATIONS and REISSUES from 2010...

Next Stop... Box Sets!

2010-11-28T19:56:00.014+01:00

The overload of great record releases and therefore the inevitability to postpone the purchase of certain items can be rewarding sometimes. For months, the 3 volumes of NEXT STOP… SOWETO were high on my shopping list but quite recently, Strut Records has issued a Limited Edition Box Set that includes all 3 volumes at a budget price. The box features the original 3 volumes in slipcases and is an amazing anthology of South African music made during the 1960s and ‘70s. Each volume is focused on a different style: volume 1 is dedicated to the golden age of mbaqanga (township jive – think Mahlathini), the second volume features some wonderful R&B, funk & psych, while the third volume is a 2CD dedicated to South African jazz. If you don’t have any of the 3 volumes, this box is highly recommended as it’s probably the best South African music box set you are likely to find!

To celebrate the third and final volume of THEME TIME RADIO HOUR, Ace Records has created a nice little box to store all three volumes in. It’s a great looking sturdy box in a limited edition of 2500. For those who don’t know yet, the Theme Time Radio Hour 2CDs feature amazing tracks taken from Bob Dylan’s radio show and are a true relief. Check the excellent Ace Records website for a complete track listing and you’ll be immediately convinced of the fact that you’re in for a real treat!

BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO AFRICAN FUNK is a real steal at €6,99! This 3CD was compiled by Nigel Williamson and features amazing tracks by wonderful bands like Bembeya Jazz National, Orchestra Baobab, Super Mama Djombo and Sir Victor Uwaifo & the Melody Maestros to name a few. This 3CD would be nice as a sampler but it also stands on its own because it features some rather hard to find tracks like the sparkling "Bimoko Magni" by Super Djata De Bamako. Deal of the year? You bet!

Oh Death

2010-10-11T21:39:00.014+02:00

For those who still check this blog of mine once in a while, I apologize for being the lame-ass blogger that I am. I could blame my mom’s sudden death a couple of weeks ago but that would be very hypocrite so let’s just say that the blog format isn’t written for me. I prefer spending some of my precious little spare time on Facebook or Twitter where I don’t feel the obligation to review every goddamn book, movie or record that crosses my way but where I can easily recommend remarkable stuff to like-minded folks instead.

Anyway, while my mom was lying on her deathbed, the following 3 records were a constant source of release and consolation to me:

Burned Mind – WOLF EYES
(Sub Pop Records CD 2004)

I almost immediately found out that the best way to deal with these harsh feelings of alienation, loss & despair was by surrounding me with mean & dark twisted sounds. This abrasive and compelling album is a tough ride but so is death. On my way home from the morgue, I think I really understood what this album is all about. Those who dismiss 'Burned Mind' as sheer noise are entirely missing the point.

Tin Boat to Tuna Town - DRUID PERFUME
(Bumbo Records LP 2010)

This fascinating second album by ex-Piranhas members DRUID PERFUME has been on constant rotation over here for the last couple of weeks. Like some kind of modern day’s 'Trout Mask Replica', the record meanders between free jazz and avant-garde experimentalism, between blues and garage rock. Insane vocals, a squalling sax and some tripped out guitar is just what the doctor ordered for me.

Trilogie de la Mort - ELIANE RADIGUE
(Experimental Intermedia Foundation 3CD 1994/1998)

Electronic music composer Eliane Radigue spent eight years working on her trilogy (1988-1993) and the result is awe-inspiring and deeply spiritual. The first chapter of this drone-alone trilogy – “Kyema” - is inspired by The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a book that was very dear to my mother. Eliane Radigue dedicated this piece to her son Yves who died in a car accident shortly after its completion. Two weeks after the accident, she began work on “Kailasha”, the second chapter of the trilogy named after Mount Kailash, the most sacred of the Tibetan mountains. With the third piece, “Koumé”, Eliane emphasizes the transcendence of death. Death is never the end. In Eliane Radigue’s music, there is a feeling of time having almost stopped. In the liner notes I read:

“This musical texture demands that those who approach it surrender themselves into that secret and inaccessible part of the human soul – a vibration as fleeting as that which sustains the numberless stars. It is after having sailed for sometime on this sea of sound that every human being will finally recognize that divine expression, the living force which he experiences alone.”

Beware however: those expecting new age sounds will be in mortal fear.

BATARANG! the fanzine…

2010-09-06T14:15:00.011+02:00

Here’s a pdf scan of a zine I made in 1998. I distributed 100 copies (read: begged people to buy my lousy fanzine) and got some nice feedback from some people which made it all the more fun for me. Enjoy the ride!

download here

In case you missed out on these 2 gems...

2010-08-25T21:26:00.008+02:00

AZ 238 – TOKYO ELECTRON
(FDH Records/Certified PR Records joint release LP)

'AZ238' flew under the radar when it was released last December but this posthumous release by one of the most exciting punkrock bands of the ’00s is a glorious swan song that you simply cannot afford to miss! The music on this album is so urgent & blistering that it sends shivers down my spine and makes me realise that 4 years after the band’s promising debut album on Jay Reatards’ Shattered Records, Tokyo Electron has released its magnus opus. Here’s what a guy from The Los Angeles Times wrote about this record: “Rousseau's wounded vocals and the band's brash instrumentation conspire to create an atmosphere of musical malaise and disenchantment that carry the album forward and aloft like desert thunderclouds threatening to douse the dry ground below.” I couldn’t have said it any better! First pressing of 500 copies almost gone so don’t waste precious time!

"I'll be back" - TOKYO ELECTRON

"AZ238" - TOKYO ELECTRON

*****

Steal My Mind – JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN III
(Certified Records LP)

Although I consider myself a big GOLDEN BOYS fan, I was really dissapointed by ‘Cash Flow’ John Wesley Coleman’s debut album from 2005. I wonder if anyone was interested in such a god-awful mishmash of poor songwriting and annoying experiments. Needless to say, I wasn’t really looking forward to Coleman’s second solo album but I am completely amazed at how good it turned out to be! The songwriting is really excellent this time and there are no irritating intermezzo’s. The first two songs have very repetitive lyrics but they just sound wonderful: good hooks and a great sound! Warren Zevons’ “Lawyers Guns & Money” sounds like a forgotten Crazy Horse gem and with songs like “Donkey Song”, Coleman proofs he’s one of the most interesting songwriters these days. It’s hard to pick highlights because there really aren’t any weak songs on ‘Steal My Mind’. When you flip over the record, you think it will all go downhill after so many great tunes but the opening song “Threw It Away” makes you realize that 'Steal My Mind' is a genuine masterpiece! The sleeve says that the record was recorded in the summer of 2009: “10 hours, eleven songs, 2 bottles of Bullet Bourbon, 100 beers, a carton of smokes, marijuana & stuff and Chinese food and good friends altogether to make this live shit!!!”. I am glad someone released this session because you can feel that there was magic in the air. Shoot me, call me a fanatic or whatever, but I think this is a perfect five star record! Essential!!!

"Donkey Song" - JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN III

"Steal My Mind" - JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN III

Hidden Gem: "The Book" by DaVincis

2010-08-09T12:53:00.003+02:00

Here’s an awesome track by an obscure band from Liverpool that didn’t record a lot. I heard this brilliant song called “The Book” when John Peel played this track on one of his shows. The track is from the compilation album ‘Ways to Wear Coats’ that came out on Brilliant Genius Records in 1986. I think powerpop doesn’t come any better than this!

DaVincis - guitar influenced band in the style of the Replacements, the Windbreakers formed 1984 as The Dream Play, feat; Paul McCormick (voc,gtr), Martin Smith (gtr), Chris Stevens (bass) (later Mugstar, Cicada Falls, Rattlebus), Faith Moore (drms). Changed name to The Davincis in 1985 soon after which Martin Smith was replaced by Martin Ward (ex Redo Zebri later Mugstar, Rattlebus). In 1986 Faith was replaced by Iain Bickle (ex Fire). This line-up had track ‘The Book’ on Brilliant Genius comp Ways To Wear Coats (Vulc.001), rec first John Peel session (Jan87) and rel mini-LP Eating Gifted Children. Iain married and relocated to Canada. 2nd Peel Session (Sep88) and ‘Pull’ single (on Pink Moon) were rec with Steve Ashton on drums. Mike James replaced Martin Ward on guitar for a short German tour (Nov/Dec89). Were on the same bill as Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, My Bloody Valentine amongst others. They also toured France before changing several lead guitarists, operating as a 3-piece briefly, then calling it a day due to one too many runarounds from major labels playeing their last gig in Mar90. Paul McCormick also rel a solo 12″ on Pink Moon ‘Another Day At Home’ & now lives in New York & is a member of Sumac On 08.07.02 The Davincis (Martin W, Steve, Paul & Chris played a reunion gig at The Slaughterhouse).

from http://link2wales.co.uk/liverpool-a/liverpool-d/

The Book - DaVincis mp3

- some random thoughts & shit -

2010-08-08T16:40:00.015+02:00

My 3-weeks camping journey through ex-Yugoslavia with wife & kids ended on a bitter note in Germany the second day when a fuckin’ BMW started slipping on the highway and crashed into our car. Fortunately, nobody was hurt but the monthly budget I spent on records, books & films during the last 20 years will now serve for the hire purchase loan of our new second-hand car. A real bummer but on the other hand, it was about time to impose some restraints on my compulsive buying addiction. At last, I will finally have some time to listen attentively to my music collection and moreover, there will still be some cash left for our Mexico/Guatemala trip next year so there’s really no need for desperation I guess. Of course, I will buy some stuff every now and then but only if I think the purchase guarantees 100% satisfaction (read: after I checked the entire album on Soulseek or think the movie is a masterpiece – with books it’s often hit or miss). As far as this blog is concerned, I will review at least 1 remarkable record from my own collection every week (that’s what I am aiming for at least).

Before the end of this month, I will publish some music reviews on my site too including a couple of records that flew under the radar recently but are absolutely fantastic. The main reason why I dedicated some of my precious time to reviewing these albums is that I can’t stand the fact that some albums are doomed to be ignored although they are downright outstanding. I hope I tickled your fancy and will let you know when the reviews are uploaded in cyberspace.

Last week, I saw 4 movies at the theatre: INCEPTION, AMER, ENTER THE VOID and THE GHOST WRITER. I didn’t like the Belgian fake-as-fuck AMER but enjoyed watching the other 3 although I once again realized that blockbusters like INCEPTION and THE GHOST WRITER aren’t really my cup of tea. Sure, THE GHOST WRITER is a masterfully directed thriller but the film leaves no room for personal interpretation or profound emotions. INCEPTION on the other hand takes itself way too serious although multiple scenes are often stuck in ordinary James Bond territory. Of course, with a budget of 200 million dollars you can’t take a lot of risks so the most clever thing to do seems to be aiming at both the masses and the critics. Call me pretentious but that’s where I am dropping out as I despise people who butter their bread on both sides. The film that made the biggest impression on me this week was ENTER THE VOID. It might be flawed but it’s also a damn courageous and challenging film that leaves you KO. The way Noé visualizes the effects of hallucinogenic drugs through kaleidoscopic visions and electronic sounds is mind-boggling; like a drug-infused A Space Odyssey! Beware however: this film begs to be seen on the big screen!

Some upcoming films I am really looking forward to include Julie Bertucelli’s THE TREE, Shirin Neshat’s WOMEN WITHOUT MEN, Xavier Beauvois’ DES HOMMES ET DES DIEUX and especially Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s latest tour-de-force LONG BOONMEE RALEUK CHAT. In the meantime, I am really looking forward to further explore Claude Chabrol’s amazing filmography by means of these 2 quintessential DVD box sets I bought when I still had the cash. I already saw 7 of the featured films and not one of them let me down! Enough said.

A record that is on constant rotation over here for the last couple of weeks is last year’s “Fragments of the Universe Nurse” by HUMAN EYE. It was released on Hook Or Crook Records and since I believe there won’t be any extra pressings, I suggest you to order this record right now as it’s probably the ultimate Timmy Vulgar record. While I am typing this, I realize how much ENTER THE VOID and this HUMAN EYE record have in common as far as psychotic alienation goes. Step into new dimensions and check both out. I promise you won’t regret!

L'Âge d'Or/Filmvondsten 2010 (part 5)

2010-07-14T11:34:00.007+02:00

EASTERN DRIFT (**)

There are more dialogues in Sharunas Bartas’ latest film than in all his previous ones together. Unfortunately, the hypnotising effect of his previous work is also gone in this Russian mafia gangster flic. A sad conclusion.

CHANTRAPAS (**)

A comedy about the trials and tribulations a Georgian filmmaker endures at home and in exile in France. I prefered Otar Iosseliani’s previous 3 films over his latest one.

OCTUBRE (***1/2)

A delightful and impressive feature debut from Peruvian co-helming brothers Daniel and Diego Vega about a bitter moneylender who’s forced to care for an abandoned baby. Read more about it here and go see this little gem if you get the chance!

L'Âge d'Or/Filmvondsten 2010 (part 4)

2010-07-08T08:43:00.007+02:00

HOW I ENDED THIS SUMMER (****)

Majestic psychological drama about two men isolated at a meteorological station on an Arctic island. One day one of them picks up a radio message with tragic news that he doesn’t dare to communicate to the other. Winner of three Silver Bears (for both lead actors and cinematography) at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival.

DES FILLES EN NOIR (***)

Intense drama about the suicide pact between two French gothic girls. Extra points for the sublime ending.

EL VUELCO DEL CANGREJO (*1/2)

Unexceptional docu-style film about a young man who arrives in a remote seaside village and lives among the impoverished people while he waits for a boat.

L'Âge d'Or/Filmvondsten 2010 (part 3)

2010-07-07T14:59:00.007+02:00

MYNA SE VA (**1/2)

Shocking low-budget video about a young illegal immigrant woman who babysits an injured young boy and gets brutally raped by a doctor. The 33-minutes violent sex scene is definitely not for the faint-hearted! Disconcerting but sincere.

O ESTRANHO CASO DE ANGÉLICA (***)

101-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira shows no sign of fading out. “All of recent De Oliveira is here: the static long takes with purposely stiff acting and artificial dialogue; the ultra-dry, almost arid, humor; the superb cinematography and impeccable mise-en-scene; the subtle attacks on the stuffy bourgeoisie; the preoccupation with the poetic imagination; and so on. In this film, all is pleasantly leavened with a gorgeous and ethereal piano score.” (The Hollywood Reporter)

NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ (***1/2)

Compelling film that links astronomy and archaeology with Pinochet’s political repression thirty years ago. Another essential documentary by Patricio Guzmán!

L'Âge d'Or/Filmvondsten 2010 (part 2)

2010-07-05T11:26:00.005+02:00

NÉNETTE (***)

An inspired documentary about a 40-year-old Borneo-born orangutan who has been living for the past 37 years at the Paris Gardens of Plants Zoo. Nénette is shown in closeup from the visitor’s side of the glass while unseen visitors and zookeepers discuss her history and habits. A nice experiment!

BOXING GYM (***)

Joyous documentary from the 80-year-old veteran Frederick Wiseman about a small boxing gym in Austin, Texas where people from all age groups and walk of life come to exercise. No interviews nor voiceovers which is a true delight since Wiseman lets the images speak for themselves.

MY JOY (***)

Challenging film feature debut by renowned Belarus-born documaker Sergei Loznitsa, set in a violence-filled & corrupt countryside. Excellent visual style!

L'Âge d'Or/Filmvondsten 2010

2010-07-02T08:42:00.004+02:00

THE ANCHORAGE (0)

An extremely dull documentary-style film that follows an elderly woman who lives isolated on a remote Swedish island. Every morning, she walks to the sea where she (unfortunately for the viewer) bathes naked, goes shopping with her boat, catches fish and listens to the radio. Totally uninspiring and at times rather pretentious. An art house turd to avoid!

THE PORTUGUESE NUN (**)

I really loved Eugène Green’s previous feature LE PONT DES ARTS but found his new film rather disappointing. His baroque theatre simply doesn’t enchant this time. A half-baked ode to Manoel de Oliveira, filmed in Lissabon.

NOTHING PERSONAL (**)

Another writer-director from Holland who tries to make an art house hit and makes me yawn. A manipulating plot and inept character development although I must admit that the latter is probably due to the film reels being played in the wrong order. Still, I found this film artificial (I hated the intertitles) and rather implausible although the cameraman really succeeds in capturing the austere beauty of western Ireland on lens.

WE NEVER LEARN: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001

2010-06-30T19:53:00.015+02:00

Last year, Kris Verreth from Demolition Derby Records forwarded me a mail from NEW BOMB TURKS singer Eric Davidson in which he announced his upcoming book about ‘90s garage punk and asked people for old flyers, pictures and anything from that era and those kind of bands. Ever since, I have been looking forward to this book because as a fan, I was part of the scene from the very beginning and knew Davidson was the right man for this job.

I remember a THEE HEADCOATS/THEE HEADCOATEES double bill in my hometown in 1991. As I was DJ'ing that night, Kyra from THEE HEADCOATEES came to me and asked if I had any Crypt records. I didn’t have a clue since I had never heard of the label. Little did I know that for the next decade, I would be buying almost every new Crypt Records release. At the time, I did have a few Sympathy For The Record Industry releases though (THE LAZY COWGIRLS, THE CREAMERS, CLAW HAMMER) which probably were my first introduction to what Davidson calls “gunk punk”, a word that is totally new to me. I myself always preferred to call this loud, raw and out of control ‘90s garage punk “punk rock & roll” or “punkrawk”.

Davidson kicks off his book three years earlier in 1988 with Cleveland’s hometown heroes DEATH OF SAMANTHA, a band that made him realize that rock & roll should be fun in the first place. A rather strange departure as I never associated DEATH OF SAMANTHA with punk rock & roll. Probably as a reaction to sterile hardcore bands and depressing grunge units, wild guitar bands like THE LAZY COWGIRLS, DEVIL DOGS and THE RAUNCH HANDS started to appear on the scene and labels specialized in wild garage punk came into business: SFTRI, Estrus Records, Crypt and In The Red (to name the big 4).

Soon, a shitload of exciting young bands started releasing records on multiple labels and went on tour in Europe mostly thanks to Crypt Records’ head honcho Tim Warren who always linked a Crypt record release to a European tour. Throughout the book, you can feel Davidson’s gratitude to Warren because his label released the NEW BOMB TURKS’ first 2 albums and a singles compilation, organized many Euro tours and as a matter of fact, had kick started the whole scene with his essential 60s garage punk compilations 'Back From The Grave' and 'Garage Punk Unknowns'.

I remember the first European show by the NEW BOMB TURKS at the mighty Pit’s in Kortrijk, Belgium on March 21, 1993. The record wasn’t even available yet (everyone at the club bought a copy directly from the band after the show) but the VPRO had given the NEW BOMB TURKS’ awesome WIRE cover “Mr. Suit” some decent airplay. Needless to say, the show was a blast from start to finish and it’s interesting to read about Davidson’s reflections 17 years later.

One week after THE NEW BOMB TURKS’ very first European triumph, another legendary double bill took place at the Pit’s: Frisco’s lo-fi kings SUPERCHARGER/THE MUMMIES! SUPERCHARGER was clumsy but great while THE MUMMIES were absolutely mind-blowing. Total wreck & roll mayhem and definitely one of the best shows I’ve ever witnessed! In the book, Trent Ruane complains about the complete catastrophe of their second European tour half a year later. He blames the audience although I can tell you that THE MUMMIES played a bigger venue this time and had the bad luck of having to compete against a stellar supporting act: the killer debut live show by Belgian’s own SIN ALLEY. THE MUMMIES did suck that night.

Another highlight that year (I never realized all this took place in the very same year until I read this book) was the legendary Sub Pop Euro tour with the DWARVES/REVEREND HORTON HEAT/SUPERSUCKERS triple-bill. At the entrance, everyone received a little note telling that the Democrazy club could not be held responsible for possible injuries. It was the first time that I experienced the dangerous side of rock & roll. THE REVEREND HORTON HEAT and THE SUPERSUCKERS were both awesome but the 22 minutes set by THE DWARVES, which started with a naked He Who Cannot Be Named smashing his guitar into pieces, was the sonic equivalent of a flame-thrower: a scorching & ultra-violent set but also lotsa fun! Afterwards, I heard Blag Jesus asking a guy next to me what he thought of the show and if he had as much fun as the band itself on stage. This kinda dangerous fun was a complete revelation to me at the time and it’s great to read about all the wild adventures from this infamous tour.

Davidson does a great job putting the whole 90s punk rock scene into perspective. WE NEVER LEARN is filled with sharp observations and enlightening interviews by the likes of Pat Todd (THE LAZY COWGIRLS), THE RAUNCH HANDS, BILLY CHILDISH, Blag Jesus (DWARVES), Long Gone John (SFTRI), Trent Ruane (THE MUMMIES), Johan Kugelberg and numerous quotes by Jay Hinman, Jeffrey Evans, Larry Hardy, Mike LaVella, Greg Lowery, Mike Mariconda, Kim Shattuck, Rick Sims, Jon Spencer, Alicja Trout etc. Only Dave Crider from Estrus Records refused to contribute which is rather lame to say the least.

There are some statements that you really have to take with a grain of salt like Ned Hayden claiming that 'Complete London Toe Rag Session' is THE ACTION SWINGERS’ best album (that's undoubtedly Decimation Blvd!) and even an inaccuracy (“Chris Verruth” (that’s Kris Verreth) never lived in Kortrijk, home of the Pit’s) but after all, this is minor quibble.

Davidson ends his book in 2001, the breakthrough year for THE HIVES, THE STROKES & THE WHITE STRIPES and goes into detail about the Long Gone John/Jack White and Jim Diamond/Jack White controversies. Davidson also explains the title of his book: when bands finally get the chance to earn some dough by means of a reunion, they are immediately nitpicked by hordes of so-called fans for selling out. We will never learn how to deal with success, both fans and bands.

WE NEVER LEARN is a terrific read and absolutely mandatory for all those who were part of the scene, be it as a fan or as a band member. The recommended discography at the end and the free 20 song download is an extra bonus. Music book of the year!

An interview with Eric Davidson about his book can be read here.

2010-06-19T11:39:00.001+02:00

I AM WRITING A BUNCH OF REVIEWS THAT WILL BE PUBLISHED ON MY WEBSITE ~~EARLY~~ MID JULY. STAY TUNED!

2010-05-28T09:41:00.011+02:00

Well, to be honest, I didn’t grew up with Hank Williams or The Doors. In fact, for years, I was totally into disco !!! At the age of 13, I was addicted to ‘Thriller’, Duran Duran was my favorite band and once (only once, I swear!) I snatched 300 Belgian francs outta my mother’s purge in order to buy Queen’s ‘Greatest Hits’! Thankfully, the following albums changed my life:

Rollin’ Through The Night – EVAN JOHNS & THE H-BOMBS (Alternative Tentacles 1986)

This killer album - originally recorded in 1982 - is so criminally underrated it’s ridiculous! Guitars galore and tongue-in-cheek songs mainly about partying. All hail Jello Biafro for releasing one of the very best rock ‘n’ roll records of all time!

Hallowed Ground – VIOLENT FEMMES (Slash 1984 )

This is the record that guided me through my adolescent years. Even my father knew the lyrics by heart ‘cuz I kept on spinning the record day after day! Due to overkill, I haven’t listened to the Femmes in recent years though…

Invisible Lantern – SCREAMING TREES (SST 1988)

I bought this record at the age of 18 and 2 weeks later the band played at the Democrazy club in Belgium. One of the very first live shows I attended that totally blew me away! Van Conner (or was it Gary Lee Conner?) lying in front of us on the floor fuckin’ up his guitar combined with Mark Lanegan’s feverish vocals was pure bliss! “Ivy” still sends shivers down my spine!

Not Born Beautiful – SHOCK HEADED PETERS (El Records 1985)

A friend of mine recorded this 1986 album on a tape and I soon became enthralled by the alienating songs and lyrics. I didn’t read novels at the time and found this album a genuine piece of escapism.

Just Keep Eating – SCRATCH ACID (Rabid Cat 1986)

I’ll never forget that very evening when Scratch Acid played in Belgium (5/01/87 ) and I couldn’t attend the show because it was a two hours drive and I didn’t have a car. I was really a die-hard fan and even had the band name written with Tipp-Ex on my black leather jacket! That very evening (it was in the middle of an ordinary school week) I felt really depressed. Later, my sister used to tell all her friends that I only dated girls with cars…

Who's Who?

2010-05-18T20:14:00.018+02:00

I couldn't see the forest for the trees so I did a little homework. I thought you might be interested too...

1) THE BLACK JASPERS
= King Khan + Jasper Hood

“The Black Jaspers are King Khan (King Khan & BBQ, Shrines, ect, ect) and Jasper Hood (Moorat Fingers) getting together for an exercise in lowest common denominator, lowest fidelity punk stupidity imaginable. The Black Jaspers have been playing on and off since 2000 but are only just now getting around to releasing some of their recordings. This debut album was recorded in 2001 and has sat in King Khan's vaults aging like a fine wine ever since. Not until now has the King decided to unleash this record on the public. Twelve tracks of retardation inspired by the likes of the Angry Samoans, Electric Eels, Mentally Ill, and any of the dumbest Killed By Death tracks you care to name."

RELEASES: eponymous debut album out on In The Red Records

http://www.myspace.com/theblackjaspers

*****

2) THE DING-DONGS
= Bloodshot Bill + Mark Sultan

“Introducing the modern day Rat Fink and Boo Boo (yes, they are THAT great!), Montreal mega-monster talents BBQ and Bloodshot Bill, each the greatest young vocalists to erupt from the the City of Smoked Meats!”

RELEASES: debut album 'Ding-Dong Party' out on Norton Records

http://www.myspace.com/officialdingdongs

*****

3) TANDOORI KNIGHTS
= Bloodshot Bill + King Khan

Tandoori Knights interview from Mongrel Zine here

RELEASES: "Pretty Please/Bucketful" 7" on Norton Records + 3 songs 7” in Norton Records’ Rolling Stones cover series + debut album due in August on Norton Records

http://www.myspace.com/tandooriknights

*****

4) THE ALMIGHTY DEFENDERS
= King Khan + Mark Sultan + Black Lips

RELEASES: debut album on Vice Records

http://www.myspace.com/thealmightydefenders

COMPILE ME CRAZY !!!

2010-05-13T16:25:00.007+02:00

I just finished my third 'mixed' compilation (thanks MixMeister!).
Download the thing, burn it on a cdr and ENJOY!!!

1. Jungle Queen – FRED PRENTISS
(That’ll Flat Git It, Vol.17 (SUN) – Bear Family cd)
exotic & eery rockabilly track from an obscure master

2. Rap Pon Rydim – TIGER
(Sunset Records 7”)
weird & wonderful: reggae toaster goes rap anno 1988

3. Obeah Man – CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & HIS MAGIC BAND
(Grow Fins Rarities (1965-1982) – Revenant 5cd)
no reason to explain

4. The Way I Feel About You – THE BRISTOLS
(Alright, This Time Just The Girls Vol.2 – SFTRI cd)
shortlived English supergroup feat. Liam ‘Toe Rag’ Watson and Fabienne Delsol

5. Goin’ Down The Road – BEN VAUGHN
(Mono – Club de Musique Records cd)
a great Ersel Hickey cover from an amazing covers only album

6. Lightning-Rod Man – LOWELL GEORGE & THE FACTORY
(Hotcakes & Outtakes : 30 Years of Little Feat – Rhino 4cd)
produced by Frank Zappa who also plays the piano!

7. Come On Home – LAMBERT, HENDRICKS & ROSS
(The Hottest New Group In Jazz – Columbia/Legacy 2cd)
my favorite vocal jazz trio!

8. Massa – LE GRAND MAITRE FRANCO & JOLIE DETTA
(World Legends: Franco – Sonodisc 2cd)
ex-Franco's OK Jazz legends Odemba OK Jazz Allstars still play this wonderful song today!

9. Mother Of Earth – DM BOB & THE DEFICITS
(Salvo Of 24 Gunshots: Tribute to Gun Club – Unrecording Records 2lp)
amazing cover from a decent tribute album

10. Milouda – BELLEMOU & GANA EL MAGHNAOUI
(Le Monde du Raï – Buda Records lp)
probably my alltime favorite raï track!

11. Inside The World Of The Blues Explosion – THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION
(Extra Width – Crypt Records lp)
still crucial!

12. El Son De Nicaragua – ORQUESTA CHEPIN
(Sabroso! Havana Hits – Earthworks/Virgin lp)
superb song from one of the first world music compilations (1989)

13. The Object Of My Affection – PINKY TOMLIN
(Pop Music: The Early Years 1890-1950 – Columbia/Epic/Legacy 2cd)
“by the end of WWII, Tomlin had left music, finding a new and more profitable career as the head of an oil development company” - thanks for the tune Pinky!

14. One Steady Baby – THE GRIFFIN BROTHERS feat. MARGIE DAY
(Blues With A Beat – Acrobat Music cd)
one of the most succesful of the DC R&B groups!

15. Pana Cand Nu Te Iubeam – MARIA TANASE
(Malédiction d’Amour – Oriente Musik cd)
the Edith Piaf of Romania

16. Lam Sarawan - UBON PATTANA WITH SURIN PAKSIRI AND ANGKANA KHUNCHAI
(Siamese Soul 2 – Sublime Frequencies cd)
Thai jewel

17. The Dark Age Of Love – THIS IMMORTAL COIL
(The Dark Age Of Love – Ici d’Ailleurs cd)
the opening track from a great COIL tribute album

just listen...

or download the file here!

The Lords Of Altamont

2010-05-10T17:42:00.007+02:00

Yesterday, I went to see THE LORDS OF ALTAMONT only because the band played 200 yards from my house. I always thought they were some poser/crap/glam rock & roll band; like a punk rock version of Mötley Crüe. But boy was I wrong!!! On stage, the band played some very exciting hi-octane punk/garage rock & roll that mixes the best of The Cramps & The Stooges (the band’s main influences according to singer Jake "The Preacher" Cavaliere). Moreover, The Lords Of Altamont do have an awesome charisma: tattooed, energetic & very compelling to watch! The singer played this huge farfisa organ and was really wild & crazy. Some songs reminded me of The Joneses and I think The Lords Of Altamont would be the ultimate band to cover The Joneses’ immortal classic “Pill Box”. L.A. Sleaze Supreme!!!

(picture above by Ronny Wynants)

As if this wasn't enough to make an awesome party, the band had brought along 2 professional go-go dancers from L.A. who were very raunchy (but not vulgar)! I really felt in heaven being surrounded by a hot-rocking band and two gorgeous and thrilling beauties who looked like they had just stepped out of a Russ Meyer film poster! If god exists, he did an amazing job creating these femmes fatales! Hail Hail Rock & Roll!!!

Fast & Funky - LARRY JOHNSON

2010-05-04T20:44:00.010+02:00

Here’s one hell of a thrilling acoustic folk blues album that could as well have made it into my all-time top 10! LARRY JOHNSON did a lot of session work throughout the last 50 years (!) and recorded his masterpiece ‘Fast and Funky’ in 1971 for the Blue Goose label, a subsidiary of Nick Perl’s Yazoo Records. According to the original liner notes, Larry would now be a legendary blues figure if he had belonged to an earlier era and I wholeheartedly agree! Listen to his crystal clear finger-picking style and powerful voice and you will soon realize that LARRY JOHNSON is a unique talent whose music is too good to be forgotten! Click here for a great piece about LARRY JOHNSON written by Elijah Wald for The Boston Globe in 1998 (scroll halfway down the page). Enjoy the 3 songs below and good luck finding a copy of this album! (I’m afraid the cd reissue by the Baltimore Blues Society from 1996 is long out-of-print)

“Larry Johnson, alone on stage with an acoustic guitar, reminded the audience of what the blues is all about, singing with a depth, directness and passion that made most of the other performers seem like they were just clowning around.”

“Its is no exaggeration to call this the most satisfying acoustic blues record by any artist born after 1930, the only one that completely captures the spirit of the classic blues while still sounding utterly personal.”

Keep it Clean - LARRY JOHNSON mp3

Pick Poor Robin Clean - LARRY JOHNSON mp3

The Beat from Rampart Street - LARRY JOHNSON mp3

Pic of the Week

2010-05-03T16:04:00.001+02:00

NAPALM DEATH FOREVER !!!

2010-05-02T15:41:00.008+02:00

Those damn music festivals! A couple of weeks ago, I bought a ticket for Europe’s biggest indoor extreme metal fest, only to find out that the 2 bands that I absolutely didn’t want to miss were scheduled at the same time! Whereas a friend of mine choose to see NAPALM DEATH’s hyper intense show in its entirety, I decided to quit halfway through their fantastic show in order to see Finland’s grindcore masters ROTTEN SOUND who laid down an ultra-ferocious & devastating set, dedicated to… NAPALM DEATH!

“I can’t believe so many people showed up for us while the gods of grindcore are playing in the main hall” said Rotten Sound singer Keijo Niinimaa and I immediately realized that I wasn’t the only one who had just made a very difficult choice. Apparently, ROTTEN SOUND was somehow aware of this which resulted in an extremely ruthless set that sounded like the aural equivalent of a precise bombardment. This may sound like a cliché but really, this set was so fuckin’ HEAVY that it felt like a BOMB. An earth-shattering gig by one of the most ferocious grindcore bands around these days. Like my old Big Black t-shirt used to state: Power Where You Need It!

NAPALM DEATH has been around since 1986 and although their music underwent quite some changes, they are still considered one of the best and most crucial bands around in the metal department. Singer Barney Greenway is a wonderful down-to-earth bloke who is a real joy to watch on stage and one of the few lead singers who has actually something interesting to say in-between songs. You should definitely check out Earache’s 2003 2cd compilation 'Noise For Music’s Sake' which is a perfect anthology but even if you are not so keen on their albums, a NAPALM DEATH show is a total unique experience that you cannot afford to miss if you like your music loud, adventurous and heavy. I hereby induct NAPALM DEATH into my personal Hall of Fame!

One other band that made quite an impression on me was SIX FEET UNDER whose singer’s ear piercing screech and huge dreadlocks had to be heard/seen to be believed! Each time he started banging his head, it looked like he was in a terrible fight with a huge octopus. Awesome!

Brutal Truth, Venomous Concept, Cripple Bastards, Eyehategod, Rotten Sound, Napalm Death… what’s next?

2010-04-27T21:31:00.022+02:00

Yeah I know it’s been quite some time since a wrote a piece on this damn blog so - in true Your Flesh style - here’s a top 10 of things that made my day during the last couple of weeks:

1. EYEHATEGOD live in Ghent April 11. 2010

The two most recent shows that totally blew me away were both by metal acts. Sign of the times? Both BRUTAL TRUTH (last year in Aalst) and EYEHATEGOD (two weeks ago in Ghent) didn’t show any signs of weakness despite a 20+ years career. EYEHATEGOD's appearance in Ghent was a furious display of supreme misantrophic sludge. The interaction with the audience was often hilarious but fortunately the show was no half-assed job but a full blast from start to finnish. It made me think of Flipper or The Laughing Hyenas drenched in feedback laden metal. A band that sounded rotten to the core but incredibly powerful at the same time. Please stay sick guys!

2. Family citytrip to PARIS

A mix between tourist traps like the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre/Sacré Coeur (including a cartoon drawing for the kids!) and a couple of wonderful expositions (William Turner at the Grand Palais, Lucian Freud at Centre Pompidou, amazing Asian art at Musée Guimet). Paris never ceazes to fascinate the young and euh… not so young!

3. MEXICO/Frida Kahlo exhibition at Bozar

A perfect introduction to Mexican art and a great appetizer for my 2011 trip to Mexico.

4. LEE PERRY’S BIRTHDAY PARTY at Vooruit March 21. 2010

An amazing punky reggae party featuring The Congos, Max Romeo and Lee Perry, all in excellent form!

5. Watching a bunch of amazing movies at the CINEMA NOVO FILM FESTIVAL in Bruges (highlights include My Only Sunshine, Mother, Thirst, Visage, Norteado, About Elly)

Although MY ONLY SUNSHINE for example isn’t exactly a flawless film (Variety really hates it), I loved every second of this bewildering Turkish film as it provoked a feeling of immense joy despite the grim story. Opinions are like assholes anyway.

6. Completing my gamelan NONESUCH EXPLORER collection

Another great indonesian music collection that has been deleted on cd recently. Fortunately, eBay and various internet retailers once again enabled me to complete my collection.

7. My secondhand Technics turntable SL-1200MK2PK

I used to hesitate often between buying the vinyl or cd version of an album but since I bought the Royce Rolls among the record players, it’s constantly vinyl time over here!

8. Confessions of a Citizen – SÁNDOR MÁRAI

Another essential book by one of my favorite writers. Although ‘Confessions of a Citizen’ reads like Márai’s autobiography, the author always claimed that it’s a fictious novel. Another book by Sándor Márai that will enrich your mind!

9. Finding a sealed copy of THE CRAMPS’ 'A Date With Elvis' on Vengeance Records

I know it’s a controversial thing to say but 1986 ‘A Date With Elvis’ is probably my favourite CRAMPS album. It has one of the most thrilling record covers too; especially the deleted Vengeance edition with the embossed purple lettering. I finally got my hands on a mint copy at a recent record fair.

10. Completing my J.M. COETZEE novels collection

There aren’t many writers of whom I want to read every book but Coetzee is one of them. On the occasion of the South-African Nobel Prize Winner for Literature’s 70th birthday, all his books are on sale at the moment. The result is that I’m totally broke right now...

Cinema Novo Film Festival Bruges

2010-03-14T12:40:00.003+01:00

http://www.cinemanovo.be

THE LEAVING TRAINS & THE CELIBATE RIFLES

2010-02-23T18:38:00.010+01:00

On March 1. 1986 at the age of 16, I discovered a music club in my hometown called DE MEDIA where I went to see an IVY GREEN/L’ATTANTAT double bill. Both shows were wild and explosive and a new world opened up for me. Because I really loved the place, I became a co-worker and started recommending bands to the club owner. Two years later, THE LEAVING TRAINS from L.A. planned a European tour to promote their third SST long-player “Fuck” and I managed to book a show at the club. Again, it was another raw and exciting rock & roll night and because a good time was had by all, the club owner agreed to my recommendations to book more guitar bands. I can’t tell you how great it felt as a 17-years old kid to jump on his bike and pedal off to wild shows by the likes of SOUL ASYLUM, TAR BABIES, DOUGHBOYS, THE STEPPES, 11TH DREAM DAY, VANILLA CHAINSAWS, ED KUEPPER, THEE HEADCOATS, DEAD MOON, THE WALKABOUTS, THE CYNICS and 22 PISTE PIRKKO!

A couple of months later, I saw THE CELIBATE RIFLES from Australia at some squat in Antwerp called 1,000 Appeltjes (1,000 Little Apples). Half of the band was dressed like they’d spent the afternoon on a surfboard with their swimming shorts and beach sandals! It must have been July 30. 1988 because I remember how I slept on a bench in the city afterwards and took a bus to the Sfinks festival in nearby Boechout early in the next morning where I saw revelatory concerts by Toumani Diabate, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Abdel Aziz El Mubarak and Ali Farka Touré. Although I had a very good relationship with my parents since my 3 older sisters had left the house, I really enjoyed being on my own as an adolescent, living on a steady diet of music and little money. The following night, I slept at an outdoors sawmill and after the second festival day, I had to phone my parents to come and get me because I had spent my last money on a Miles Davis record. But I’m wandering off the subject.

As with THE LEAVING TRAINS, THE CELIBATE RIFLES were also promoting their finest platter (“Roman Beach Party”) when I saw them for the first time. Both albums have that same exciting, loose spirit that somehow shaped me as an individual at the time. My carpe diem attitude was energized by both records and that’s probably the reason why I have always considered them as twin albums.

Life without memory is not life at all – to quote Buñuel - and that’s why I not only cherish both records based on their qualities but especially because they remind me of an inspiring time full of discovery & excitement. Nothing wrong with a healthy dose of nostalgia, right?

Here are 3 songs from both “Fuck” and “Roman Beach Party”. I’m sure you will agree that these songs still hold up today:

What Cissy Said – THE LEAVING TRAINS mp3

27 Days – THE LEAVING TRAINS mp3

So Fucked Up – THE LEAVING TRAINS mp3

Jesus on T.V. - THE CELIBATE RIFLES mp3

The more things change – THE CELIBATE RIFLES mp3

Ocean Shore – THE CELIBATE RIFLES mp3

YOSHIDA KIJU

2010-02-19T21:39:00.010+01:00

Besides a couple of great new movies at the INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM, the true revelation for me was the discovery of the films of YOSHIDA KIJU, one of the leaders of the Japanese New Wave. Not many people outside Japan and France have ever seen any of his beautiful and intriguing films so I count myself very lucky for having seen 4 of the 7 selected films on the big screen. The focus on Yoshida Kiju was part of a more extensive retrospective of 13 films (Yoshida made 19 fiction films in total) organized by the Norwegian Film Institute who also published an enlightening and highly recommended catalogue called “Yoshida Kiju: 50 Years of Avant-Garde Filmmaking in Postwar Japan”.

“I was never really conscious of doing something to be anti-something, but whenever I wrote a screenplay, it naturally came out like that.”

University-educated Yoshida made his raw debut film in 1960 when he was 27 years old, after only five years of apprenticeship mainly under Kinoshita Keisuke, master of comedy and melodrama. He had graduated in French literature from Tokyo University, Japan’s top university, and was heavily influenced by Sartre’s existentialism. Yoshida brought his academic views of society to the screen and rejected harmony and resignation.

The Affair at Akitsu (1962) is a beautiful and intense melodrama and marked Yoshida’s first collaboration with the star actress Okada Mariko. Before long they became inseparable, married and established their own independent production company Gendai Eigasha. About The Affair at Akitsu, Yoshida says the following: “I was thinking of trying to make a romance film. But romantic love is always betrayed by time, because it’s only for a very short period of time that a man and a woman can think in unison. So for me a true romance film is a film that shows the gap between the woman and the man and shows that they go past each other without really finding a common meeting point.” A wonderful and powerful film!

Yoshida’s filmic analysis of human relationships and female nature is experimental in both style and structure. Eros + Massacre (1969) is a complex yet enchanting tour de force and almost unanimously acclaimed as his true masterpiece. The film takes on Osugi Sakae, the pre-war anarchist and advocate of free love, and his relations with three different women, but has them mingle and interact with a couple of student radicals from the 1960s. Yoshida denies the narrative function of cinema in favor for a dynamic interplay of different points of view. It’s a long and complex film, but the inspiring content (the struggle between male logic and female passion) and the enchanting cinematography ensures a most rewarding experience.

Looking at it more broadly, I also went beyond the normal set of rules for setting up the camera and framing a scene. The common rule is that when you make a close-up, the focus of the shot should be at the center of the frame, so that for most people it’s easy to look at, it’s comfortable. Which also means that as part of the set of rules of cinema, the person at the center is often unconsciously defined as the protagonist. So I very often frame only half of the face of the actor. It’s a kind of resistance, telling the audience, “Don’t trust so blindly what you see on the screen. Please try to find by yourselves what is really important to you as the audience, in what you see within this frame.” That kind of feeling became stronger and stronger for me.

Coup d’Etat (1973) is a beautifully accomplished attempt to journey into the mind of the rightist revolutionary Kita Ikki, and which takes on the position of the emperor in the modern Japanese setting. It’s a difficult film to understand but the strangeness of the style of the film makes watching it an altogether unique cinematic experience.

At the age of 40, Yoshida took a thirteen-year break in making feature films during which he challenged the format of documentary. During the 1980s, he made two more films: The Human Promise (1986) and Wuthering Heights (1988).

Yoshida returned to fiction filmmaking after another fifteen-year interval with The Women in the Mirror (2002). Three generations of women question their identity but, with the atomic dome of Hiroshima in the background, have to admit that there can be no definitive answer to their query, due to the irrational character of the atomic bombing. According to Yoshida, the film took him 13 or 14 years to make and reunited him with Okada Mariko on screen after an absence of three decades.

The Women in the Mirror was also the last Yoshida film I saw in Rotterdam and I hope I will be able one day to see his other films too. According to Yoshida, what a filmmaker – as an artist – really wants to do is express something that one doesn’t understand. I myself didn’t understand a lot of what I saw on the screen, but I was completely enthralled by his challenging and brilliant films.

“A film is ultimately not about what I tell the audience to see but about what the audience sees and discovers for themselves.”

CC RIDERS

2010-02-11T21:35:00.005+01:00

In 2001, Alicja Trout’s Contaminated Records released a 100 copies only CD-R by a band called CC RIDERS. Besides Alicja herself (The Clears, The Fitts, Lost Sounds, Mouserocket, Nervous Patterns, River City Tanlines, Black Sunday), this Memphis band included Monsieur Jeffrey Evans (Gibson Bros, ’68 Comeback, South Filthy), James Arthur (Fireworks, Necessary Evils, Feast of Snakes, Golden Boys) and a guy called Jay Reatard. Around 2000-2001, the band had a weekly practice on Friday evening 7-9pm and according to a recent Jeffrey Evans post on the Goner Board, Jay always added the right guitar parts and hooks even on the real rootsy stuff the band was doing. Despite the band’s killer line-up, the music on the 11-song CD-R is far from essential. Nevertheless, it’s great rockin’ stuff and I would love to own a copy on vinyl. I sincerely hope the album’s (re-)release is just a matter of time. In the meantime, you can enjoy the CC RIDERS here:

1. Monkey's Uncle
2. The Long, Long Ballad Of The Red-headed Girl (killer!!!)
3. I Gotta Right (Iggy And The Stooges)
4. Olde Joe Clarke (traditional)
5. Train Kepta Rollin' (Tiny Bradshaw)
6. Soul Deep (The Box Tops)
7. King Riders Boogie [King Riders Motorcycle Club, Memphis, TN]
8. This Pussy's Gotta Give
9. Sally Honeycutt Blues
10.Workin' Man Blues (Merle Haggard)
11.Stormy Monday Blues (traditional)

International Film Festival Rotterdam

2010-01-30T14:50:00.000+01:00

Gone to Rotterdam...

LES DIPLOMATES (Haiti)

2010-01-23T19:19:00.013+01:00

Lately, I was totally disgusted by this thing called “the human race” when an online poll in my newspaper revealed that 46% of the voters didn’t have any intention of donating money to the poor victims of the Haitian earthquakes. Well, I sincerely hope that those greedy bastards won’t be saved from a disaster in the future because it would definitely clear their fucked up mind!

Anyway, here’s a wonderful ode to Haiti by a great band - called LES DIPLOMATES - that I once saw live at the Open Tropen Festival in Turnhout. The show was amazing and afterwards, I bought a cd from the band called '20 ANS DE COMPAS A PARIS' which makes me believe that LES DIPLOMATES are Haitian expatriates who live in Paris. This track is an absolute scorcher: enjoy (play it LOUD!!!) and don’t forget the people of Haiti!

Haïti - LES DIPLOMATES & JEAN-FRITZNER DELMONT

2010-01-22T13:39:00.005+01:00

During lunchtime, I paid a visit to a second-hand vinyl shop around the corner, ignored the worn-out & way too expensive vinyl records and left the shop with 3 out-of-print CDs with both CDs and booklets in excellent condition! For a mere €20,00 this is my deal of the week:

Alhaji Bai Konte:
Kora Melodies from the Republic of the Gambia, West Africa, Released 01/01/1973

Bai Konte is a virtuoso performer on the kora, the 21-stringed African harp. He gets a sweet sound from the harp, and the flowing chords, shifting rhythmic patterns, and spirited runs create a quiet, meditative atmosphere. Since its release in 1973, this album's gentle, transcendant charms have captivated thousands of listeners -- you don't have to be an African music fan to love it.

Various Artists:
Vintage Music from India -- Early Twentieth-Century Classical & Light-Classical Music, Released 01/01/1993

Produced by Dick Spottswood and Peter Manuel, this disc constitutes the first compilation of reissues from early 20th century India, presenting a cross-section of recorded genres and artists of the time. What is remarkable about Indian music is the continuity of its evolution, dating back more than two millennia. Change has been continual and often remarkable, particularly since the emergence of new genres since the 19th century and the introduction of relatively new instruments like the sitar, sarod and tabla. The period represented on these recordings was a time of fascinating transition.

Various Artists: Afghanistan: Female Musicians of Herat

Once a major cultural centre of the Timurid Empire (15th century), the fascinating medieval city of Herat, in western Afghanistan, has for many centuries enjoyed a reputation for excellence in the arts. The albums "Traditional Music of Herat" and "Female Musicians of Herat" offer a variety of vocal and instrumental music from the Herat region with traditional instruments such as dutâr, chahârtâr, sornâr and dohol, dâira, nai chapâni and robâb. These recordings were made just before the start of the civil war, which disrupted the life of this ancient centre of Islamic culture. Recorded in 1973 - 1977 Text by John Baily

Burned Again - THE FORTUNATE SONS

2010-01-18T19:10:00.010+01:00

Let me introduce you to a scorchin’ & mighty blast of a punkrock record that unfortunately went completely under the radar when it was released in 2004. THE FORTUNATE SONS are 4 guys from Ottowa, Canada and recorded the songs for their one and only album (thus far) with producer Jeff Meier (ex-Detroit Cobras, Rocket 455) in Detroit in 2003. The album – Burned Again - was released by a rather obscure German label that had also released a 10” and LP by 3 of the members’ previous band the DEAD CITY REBELS. The label, High Society International, probably didn’t make a lot of publicity because I haven’t seen or read any reviews over the years. A real shame because if ‘Burned Again’ would have been released on a label like Crypt Records or Sympathy, I am convinced that the band would have reached many more fans. I really like everything about this album: the hi-octane energy of its 12 killer songs, the singer’s raunchy vocals, the superb production, hell - I even love the sleeve!

I couldn’t resist contacting the band through their myspace and here’s what guitar player Nat Hurlow responded:

Hi Luke!!
Thanks so much for the kind words! Yeah, 'Burned Again' was the only thing that was released (and it's hard to believe that was 5 yrs ago...) unfortunately. Lots of demos and practice tapes though. We're all fairly busy with work, and other bands now. Also, Austen lives in Toronto, so that makes it a little difficult to practice regularly. We try and jam and play shows when we can, but it's not very often at all anymore. We've got some newer stuff (the LP was basically all of the songs we had from the start of the band up to that point) that we've been trying to record, but it hasn't worked out sadly. Hopefully this spring we'll be able to get it together.
thanks again for your email,
Nathaniel/FS
To wetten your appetite, I leave you with 3 awesome tracks from ‘Burned Again’. According to the website, the album is on sale for only €3,75 (???) so don’t mind the shipping costs and go buy this bonafide classic NOW!

Split Shift Heart Attack – THE FORTUNATE SONS
Fast Luck – THE FORTUNATE SONS
Mother Fucker In Law – THE FORTUNATE SONS

R.I.P. JAY REATARD 1980 - 2010

2010-01-17T13:21:00.013+01:00

On January 16th 1999 as I enter the 4ad club in Diksmuide, I see a young guy sitting cross-legged in the middle of a small stage. Upon first sight, it looks like he is meditating but it soon turns out that he isn’t feeling too well and is trying to control his fever. It’s an image that is burned into my mind forever. Fortunately, my fears that the intensity of the show would probably be weakened by this sudden flu turns out to be unnecessary when his band REATARDS starts kicking out one classic hate-fueled garage punk tune after the other with the guy ending on the ground between our legs, screaming & hollering like mad. This was my first introduction to the hyper-intense live shows of an ultra-talented kid that called himself JAY REATARD.

At the end of 2003, Jay came back to Europe to tour with his new band the LOST SOUNDS. Since I was a huge fan of that band (and still am today), I asked Jay if I could do an interview after the show at the Pit’s in Belgium. The band agreed and we had a great 2 hours chat with all band members and some friends of mine. It soon became clear: Jay wasn’t in it for the fun & the chicks. Rock ‘n roll was his way to deal with reality. “Rock and roll is my salvation it’ll set me free whatever that means” he says in the liner notes of the first Reatards album.

Although the 2003 Lost Sounds show was somehow a disappointment to me because the set didn’t really reach a climax and ended way too soon, the band’s second appearance at the Pit’s in April 2005 was pure bliss. This time, the Lost Sounds went way beyond a climax and left me KO, both physically and emotionally. A total mindfuck. Afterwards at the bar, Jay tells me that these are the last Lost Sounds shows but that he will be back soon with his new band THE ANGRY ANGLES and the reformed Reatards. He got bored with the synths and wanted to go back to basics.

A few months later, Jay is back at the Pit’s, backed by TOKYO ELECTRON. His set with The Angry Angles, featuring his then girlfriend Alix, is great but Tokyo Electron totally kicks ass. Two minutes into the second song, my eyebrow gets busted open by the bass guitar and I am bleeding like a cow. I go backstage to wash my bloody face and bump into Jay. He tells me not to worry and shows me his own scars from various wild shows. A real nice fellow who would soon transform into a savage beast. The Reatards show that night was the only time in my life that rock ‘n roll scared the shit out of me. Jay started molesting microphone stands, smashed lights, pints and microphones and went totally berserk. I felt my heart in my mouth and was thrilled at the same time because it all sounded so fuckin’ raw & pure. Definitely one of the best shows I’ve ever witnessed!

I saw Jay two times again in 2007 as JAY REATARD AND THE BOSTON CHINKS but I must admit that I always preferred his former work with Reatards and Lost Sounds. On the other hand, I was very glad that he finally got the attention & recognition he so much deserved. The worldwide positive response to his first solo album ‘Blood Visions’ and the subsequent signing with Matador Records was a great reward for his dedication and talent.

Death is a strange thing; I haven’t been moved by someone’s death since John Peel passed away in 2004. I hope there’s still a future for punk rock & roll now that Jay is no more. As for the moment, I doubt if there will ever be another guy in punk rock as talented, genuine & exciting as Jay Reatard. RIP Jay, it fuckin’ meant a lot to me and I am still very impressed! Thanks so much!

***

My favourite Jay Reatard live shows:

1. 19/11/2005: ANGRY ANGLES + TOKYO ELECTRON + REATARDS (Pit’s, Kortrijk)
2. 19/04/2005: THE LOST SOUNDS (Pit’s, Kortrijk)
3. 16/01/1999: REATARDS + PERPETRATORS (4ad, Diksmuide)
4. 20/12/2003: THE LOST SOUNDS (Pit’s, Kortrijk)
5. 15/06/2007: JAY REATARD & THE BOSTON CHINKS (Lintfabriek, Kontich)
6. 18/05/2007: JAY REATARD & THE BOSTON CHINKS (Pit’s, Kortrijk)

more about Jay here and here.

Unsung Hero of R&B/SOUL: TED TAYLOR

2010-01-11T21:08:00.010+01:00

TED TAYLOR was a Southern soulster with a distinctive tenor voice. At a young age, he became a member of The Cadets/Jacks, a Los Angeles R&B vocal group with two names that recorded for Joe Bihari’s Modern Records. Taylor left the group in early 1956 and embarked upon a solo career, recording a wealth of sides for several labels throughout the years (Ebb, Jewel/Ronn, Duke, Cold Eagle, Warwick, Laurie, Atco, Okeh etc). Listen to 4 great tracks by the man with the swooping falsetto who sadly died in a car accident in 1987:

Everywhere I Go – TED TAYLOR (Ebb Records 1957)
Pretending Love – TED TAYLOR (Okeh 1962)
Somebody’s Always Trying – TED TAYLOR (Okeh 1964)
Close Your Eyes – TED TAYLOR (Jewel 1966)

For more Ted Taylor, buy THE EVER WONDERFUL TED TAYLOR: OKEH UPTOWN SOUL 1962-1966 on Shout! Records (2006) and continue with EVER WONDERFUL (THE COMPLETE JEWEL AND RONN SOLO SINGLES A’s AND B’s) (Westside Records 2CD 2000)

My favourite COMPILATIONS of 2009 (part one)

2010-01-09T18:46:00.008+01:00

WHEN GIRLS DO IT (Broadside Records)
Reissue of a terrific double LP from 1971 on Red Lightnin’ Records. Flamboyant killer blues recorded during the ‘50s and ‘60s and including mighty tunes from Junior Wells, Ike Turner, Memphis Slim, Magic Sam, Jimmy McCracklin as well as from unknown and obscure musicians like Bobby ‘Guitar’ Bennet, Little Oscar Stricklin and Donnie Jacobs. Cover of the year too! (click to enlarge)

listen to SUGAR BOY WILLIAMS' Little Girl by clicking here
PANAMA 2: LATIN SOUNDS, CUMBIA TROPICAL & CALYPSO FUNK ON THE ISTHMUS 1967-77 (Soundway Records)
Panama music is the forgotten music of Central America and Soundway Records did a wonderful job to adjust this injustice with a fabulous 3 volumes Panama collection. A compilation to die for!

listen to IDAMERICA RUIZ CON OSVALDO AYALA Y SU CONJUNTO's No Llores Porque Me Voy by clicking here
KONKANI SONGS: MUSIC FROM GOA MADE IN BOMBAY (Trikont Records)
“What are Italian mandolines, Mexican trumpets, sounds from the south seas and Cuban son doing in India? Rare pearls of this Indian masala mix from the 1960s to 70s on this compilation”. Another quintessential Trikont release that makes the over-hyped Sublime Frequencies releases look pale in comparison with its enlightening liner notes and great pictures!

listen to CARMO ROD's Nach Athanche by clicking here
GRIND MADNESS AT THE BBC: THE EARACHE SESSIONS (Earache Records 3CD)“Without Peel, we wouldn’t be doing this interview. For me, Peel was the teacher for me. Punk was where it started but Peel opened the doors to everything else that was strange and weird but pushing boundaries. That’s what I enjoyed and what first clicked with me. This guy played what he wanted to play and was a total outsider to the rest of them on Radio 1.” (from an interview with Mick Harris) Enough said.

listen to EXTREME NOISE TERROR's People Not Profit by clicking here
FIRE IN MY BONES: RAW RARE + OTHERWORLDLY AFRICAN-AMERICAN GOSPEL (1944-2007) (Thompkins Square 3CD)
So you thought raw gospel is music from a long lost (pre-war) time. This fabulous compilation makes you think again!

listen to REV. ROGER L. WORTHY & HIS SISTER BONNIE WOODSTOCK's Get Back Satan by clicking here

MY YEAR IN FILM

2009-12-31T10:34:00.006+01:00

It is a deplorable sign of the times that 2 of the 3 films in my top 3 have not been screened in Belgium. I was lucky enough to catch both gems at the always outstanding International Film Festival Rotterdam in January. Both films premiered at the Cannes film festival in May 2008 and especially Phillipe Garrel’s FRONTIER OF DAWN got mixed reviews. Many people found the movie pretentious, confusing or downright boring. I for myself left the theatre under a spell, amazed by this sublime meditation on love, faith and eternity. As with all art forms, the perception of a film lies in the basis of our own lives and often depends on the way we relate the film to our life. La Frontière de l’Aube touched me right in the heart.

1. La Frontière de l’Aube

a brilliant ghost story shot in sumptuous black-and-white

2. Das Weiße Band

a masterfully directed and hyper-intense drama

3. Four Nights With Anna

a grim and compelling Eastern European tale

4. The Chaser

thriller of the year comes from South Korea

5. Stella

… or why I loathed De Helaasheid Der Dingen (and adored Stella)

6. Three Monkeys

splendid film noir by this Turkish arthouse master

7. Strawberry Shortcakes

already from 2006 but this superbly directed Japanese film is too good to be forgotten

8. 24 City

a brilliant mix between fiction and documentary – I didn’t expect great things but was blown away by this masterly directed film

9. Precious

raw, pure & honest

10. The Story of Anvil

wonderful & heartfelt music documentary

11. The Sound Of Insects

final countdown to death – an amazing piece of film in every aspect

12. Bright Star

marvelous costume drama about the poet John Keats

13. Süt/Milk

spellbinding second part in Semih Kaplanoglu trilogy – a must-see!

14. Cargo 200

brilliant Russian comedy/horror/thriller

15. Let The Right One In

a subtle horror movie from Sweden

16. Un Prophète

grand cru prison drama

17. Antichrist

an upsetting but genuine piece of cinema

18. 35 Rhums

another powerful little gem by Claire Denis

19. The Wrestler

comeback of the year for Mickey Rourke!

20. Leonera

raw Argentinian prison drama

I also enjoyed: Milk, Teza, Afterschool, Fish Tank, Los Abrazos Rotos, Seraphine, Inglourious Bastards, The Loner aka Hikikomori, Departures, Paper Soldier, Morphia, Survival Song, La Mujer Sin Cabeza, Altiplano, Inland, Ocean Flame, La Maison Jaune, Songs From The Southern Seas, Still Walking, El Regalo de la Pachamama, Firaaq, Voy a Explotar, Vacation, Katanga Business, Treeless Mountain, A Festa de Menina Morta, Salamandra, Native Dancer, All Around Us, Funuke Show Some Love, Parque Via, Puisque nous sommes nés, La Vida Loca, Serbis, Izulu Lami, Soi Cowboy, Liverpool, Tokyo Sonata, Before The Burial, La Pivellina, Sahman, Gigante, Katalin Varga, Politist, Adjectiv, No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti, Yuki & Nina, Le Roi de L’Evasion, Wild Field, Petropolis, Applaus, Naked of Defences, The Weaving Girl, Fish Eyes, Il Divo, The Hurt Locker, Red Cliff

Films I haven't seen yet: Goodbye Solo, Revolutionary Road, La Belle Personne, Frozen River, Elève Libre, Lost Persons Area, Gran Torino

DECADE'S FINEST RECORDS

2009-12-28T17:34:00.021+01:00

I recently asked a couple of friends about what they think are the 15 greatest records of the last decade. Here are the albums that brightened their days (& mine) during the last 10 years. I am convinced that you will discover a couple of records that you didn’t know were that great. After all, this is what makes these lists interesting and fun, both for the compiler and the reader. Big thanks to all the people who voted! Stay tuned for my favorite movies, concerts and records of 2009!

BAZOOKA TOM

1. Congotronics - KONONO N°1 (Crammed Discs 2004)

Some more in alphabetical order:

# The Pirate’s Gospel – ALELA DIANE (Fargo 2006)
# Bassholes - BASSHOLES(Dead Canary 2005)
# Let It Bloom – BLACK LIPS (In The Red 2005)
# Good Bad Not Evil – BLACK LIPS (Vice 2007)
# Ultraglide in Black – THE DIRTBOMBS (In The Red 2001)
# You Without Sin Cast The First Stone – ISAIAH OWENS (CaseQuarter 2004)
# In The Seventh Moon … - KASAI ALLSTARS (Crammed Discs 2008)
# Mauretanian Music from the Trarza Region – NEMA MINT CHOUEIKH (Popular African Music 2006)
# Timebomb Highschool – REIGNING SOUND (In The Red 2002)
# Aman Iman - TINARIWEN (Independiente 2007)
# Boulevard de l’Independence – TOUMANI DIABATE’s SYMMETRIC ORCHESTRA (World Circuit 2006)
# Return To Cinder – WOODEN TIT (Hate 2006)

DANNY WYCKAERT

# As is now – PAUL WELLER (2005)
# Damnation - OPETH (2003)
# Is This It – THE STROKES (2001)
# Nailed – PLACE OF SKULLS (2002)
# In the future – BLACK MOUNTAIN (2008)
# Woven Hand – WOVEN HAND (2002)
# The Weirding – ASTRA (2009)
# Witchcraft - WITCHCRAFT (2004)
# Firewood - WITCHCRAFT (2005)
# II – ESPERS (2006)
# Things we lost in the fire – LOW (2001)
# The man on the burning tightrope – FIREWATER (2003)
# Black-Wave – LOST SOUNDS (2001)
# Lost Sounds – LOST SOUNDS (2004)
# Graveyard – GRAVEYARD (2008)

Also two outstanding live albums: Paul Weller & Opeth. The decade I got to know (fantastic) English folk (Spirogyra, Pentangle, Fairport Convention, Trees, …), fully appreciate progressive rock (Pink Floyd, Camel, Caravan, Spring, Genesis, King Crimson, Kansas, …), realise 80’s metal is still the best metal of all and finally got to know … Bruce Springsteen. On a disappointing note: not one Classic rock or metal-band made a truly memorable album …

BART DE ROO

# Under and Under – BLANK DOGS
# Hex Dispensers – HEX DISPENSERS
# The Goodnight Loving – THE GOODNIGHT LOVING
# Midnight World – BLACK TIME
# Black Wave – LOST SOUNDS
# Porcella – THE DEADLY SNAKES
# The Western Lands - GRAVENHURST
# The Real New Fall LP – THE FALL
# Whiskey Flower – THE GOLDEN BOYS
# The Trials of Van Occupanther - MIDLAKE
# American IV: The Man Comes Around – JOHNNY CASH
# Time Bomb Highschool – REIGNING SOUND
# Guts of Steel – BRIMSTONE HOWL
# Our Love to Admire - INTERPOL
# Let It Bloom – BLACK LIPS

KEVIN DECOSTER

# Cellscape – MELT BANANA
# Yaweh of the Highway – ARAB ON RADAR
# Black One – SUNN O)))
# Six Litanies for Heliogabalas – JOHN ZORN
# Witchcraft Today – ELECTRIC WIZARD
# White Chalk – PJ HARVEY
# Fordlandia – JOHAN JOHANSSON
# 1000 Hurts - SHELLAC
# Defexiones Will & Testament – DIAMANDA GALAS
# MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE
# Dancer in the Dark OST - BJÖRK
# Dead Hills – WOLF EYES
# Drums not Dead - LIARS
# You Are There – MONO
# Conference of the Birds – OM

WIM COTTENIER

# Hex Dispensers - HEX DISPENSERS (Alien Snatch lp)
# Marked Men - MARKED MEN (Rip Off Records lp)
# Something to Crow About – THE RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS (Gearhead Records lp)
# Ten inch - SMUT PEDDLERS (Dead Beat Records 10”)
# Young, Tight & Alright - DIGGER & THE PUSSYCATS (Spooky Records cd)
# Carbonas - CARBONAS (Raw Deluxe lp)
# Machine Gun - DRUGSTOP (P Trash 7”)
# Lose It - RETAINERS (P Trash 7”)
# Feast of Shame - BRUTAL KNIGHTS (P Trash lp)
# Here comes... – HEARTATTACKS (P Trash lp)
# American IV: The Man Comes Around – JOHNNY CASH (American lp)
# Demos - PERIPHERIQUE EST (Self released lp)
# Wheelchair Album – THE SPITS (Slovenly lp)
# Plastic Girls – THE MINDS (Alien Snatch lp)
# Hit After Hit – THE BRIEFS (Dirtnap Recors lp)

JAY HINMAN

# Sistema de Termancion Sexual – XYX 7” EP
# Blueberry Boat – FIERY FURNACES
# Numbers Life - NUMBERS
# Present the Paisley Reich – TIMES NEW VIKING
# Shrinking Moon For You – WOODEN SHJIPS 12”EP
# Seperated By Motorways / Big Infatuation – THE LONG BLONDES 45
# Make Out, Fall Out, Make Up – LOVE IS ALL 45
# Description of ther Harbor – SIC ALPS
# O – TILLY AND THE WALL
# Grass Widow – GRASS WIDOW
# Relentless Machines/Blasphemer’s Union – TOMAS FUNCTION ” 45
# Between You & Me – FABIENNE DEL SOL
# Fast Metabolism - TYVEK
# Songs III: Bird on the Water – MARISSA NADLER
# Problems – NOTHING PEOPLE 7”EP

M&M

1. Memphis Is Dead – LOST SOUNDS (2000)
2. Wolf In Sheeps Clothing – JOSEPHINE FOSTER (2004)
3. A Real Good One – THE LITTLE KILLERS (2006)
4. Aman Iman: Water Is Life – TINARIWEN (2007)
5. White African – OTIS TAYLOR (2000)
6. What Have You Done My Brother – NAOMI SHELTON AND THE GOSPEL QUEENS (2009)
7. Arrived in Gold - SIGHTINGS (2004)
8. Porcella – THE DEADLY SNAKES (2005)
9. Piercing The Veil – WILLIAM PARKER & HAMID DRAKE (2001)
10.Prinzhorn Dance School – PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL (2007)
11.World Without Tears – LUCINDA WILLIAMS (2003)
12.Blackout – BLACK TIME (2004)
13.Honour Valour Pride – BOLT THROWER (2000)
14.Diary of an Afro Warrior – BENGA (2008)
15.Rare Wood – SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN (2004)

STEVEN VDW

1. Memphis Is Dead – LOST SOUNDS (Big Neck '00)
2. Is This It – THE STROKES (RCA '01)
3. Let it Bloom - BLACK LIPS (In The Red '06)
4. Help – THE OH SEES (In The Red '09)
5. The Sophtware Slump – GRANDADDY (V2 '00)
6. Figure 8 – ELLIOTT SMITH (Dream Works Records '00)
7. Porcella – THE DEADLY SNAKES (In The Red '06)
8. White Blood Cells – THE WHITE STRIPES (Sympathy '01)
9. Midnight World – BLACK TIME (In The Red '06)
10.The King Khan & BBQ Show LP – THE KING KHAN & BBQ SHOW (Goner '04 )
11.Is A Woman - LAMBCHOP(City Slang '02)
12.Black-Wave – LOST SOUNDS (Empty '01)
13.Real Gone – TOM WAITS (Anti '04)
14.Bandana Trash – LIVE FAST DIE (Dead Beat '06)
15.Ta Det Lugnt – DUNGEN (Subliminal Sounds '04)

MARTIN VANTOMME

# Hit After Hit - THE BRIEFS
# Hex Dispensers - HEX DISPENSERS
# Hope For Men - PISSED JEANS
# The Lamps - THE LAMPS
# Butcher and the Butterfly - QUEEN ADREENA
# Petite Tu Es Un Hit - THE FEELING OF LOVE
# Is this it - THE STROKES
# Third - PORTISHEAD
# Punkrock at the British Legion Hall - BILLY CHILDISH & MUSICIANS O/T BRITISH EMPIRE
# LIVE BATACLAN PARIS 1972 – THE VELVET UNDERGROUND (2x picture disc)
# Elephant – THE WHITE STRIPES
# XTRMNTR – PRIMAL SCREAM
# Deep in the Hole - MASTERS OF REALITY
# The Spits - THE SPITS
# American IV: The Man Comes Around – JOHNNY CASH

JASPER DE WILDE

1. Red Lite – MR AIRPLANE MAN (SFTRI)
2. The Horrors – THE HORRORS (ITR)
3. Black Lips – BLACK LIPS (Bomp!)
4. The Essential Fucked Up Blues! – THE IMMORTAL LEE COUNTY KILLERS (Estrus)
5. The Spits – THE SPITS (Slovenly)
6. The Fatals – THE FATALS (Yakisakana)
7. Thee Cavemen Sessions – THEE FLYING DUTCHMEN (Boom Boom of Renton)
8. Blackout – BLACK TIME (Concrete Life)
9. Tunnel of Love – TUNNEL OF LOVE (ECA)
10.In de Winkel – THE KRUNCHIES (Criminal IQ)
11.Yes. No. Shut It. – THE HUNCHES (ITR)
12.Grab Them Cakes – THE MISTREATERS (Big Neck)
13.Yer Last record – CHEATER SLICKS (Secret Keeper)
14.Rat's Brains and Microchips – LOST SOUNDS (Empty)
15.Tyrades - TYRADES (Broken Rekids)

BART BIZEUR

# White African – OTIS TAYLOR
# Leviathan - MASTODON
# Surrounded By Thieves – HIGH ON FIRE
# Zeïbekiko - DIMITRIS MITROPANOS, THEMIS ADAMANTIDIS, DIMITRIS BASIS
# War Crime Blues/Weed – CHRIS WHITLEY
# The Living Ground - LHASA
# Paseo De Los Castaños - TOMATITO
# Cositas Buenas - PACO DE LUCÍA
# Shine – DANIEL LANOIS
# Those Once Loyal – BOLT THROWER
# Slingshot Professionals - KELLY JOE PHELPS
# Downhome Sophisticate – CORREY HARRIS
# The Deep End, Vol. 1 – GOV’T MULE
# The Road We’re On – SONNY LANDRETH
# African Roots – MICHAEL ROSE

GUY PETERS

# The Argument – FUGAZI
# Live at the Performance Center – RAINER PTACEK
# American V: A Hundred Highways – JOHNNY CASH
# Crack The Skye - MASTODON
# The Narcotic Story - OXBOW
# Six Litanies for Heliogabalas – JOHN ZORN
# Here Come The Miracles – STEVE WYNN
# Songs for the Deaf – QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
# Given To The Rising - NEUROSIS
# Smile – BRIAN WILSON
# Phanerothyme – MOTORPSYCHO
# and then nothing turned itself inside-out – YO LA TENGO
# The Dirty South – DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
# Stay Positive – THE HOLD STEADY
# All the Falsest Hearts can try – CENTRO-MATIC

LUKE BATARANG

1. Time Bomb High School – REIGNING SOUND (In The Red Records 2002)
2. I’m Not Your Soldier Anymore – DEADLY SNAKES (In The Red Records 2001)
3. Elephant – THE WHITE STRIPES (V2 Records 2003)
4. Is this it – THE STROKES (RCA Records 2001)
5. The Ape of Naples - COIL (Threshold Records 2005)
6. Wheels On Fire – WHEELS ON FIRE (Rosa Records 2006)
7. Doctor Velvet – NICK CURRAN (Blind Pig Records 2003)
8. Brain Jail – LUIS & THE WILDFIRES (Norton Records 2008)
9. Shift – NASUM (Relapse Records 2004)
10.Corridors & Parallels – DAVID S. WARE (Aum Fidelity 2001)
11.Black Wave – THE LOST SOUNDS (Empty Records 2001)
12.Mutilation Nation - CPC GANGBANGS (Alien8 Recordings 2007)
13.Aman Iman: Water Is Life - TINARIWEN (Independiente 2006)
14.Raining on the Moon – WILLIAM PARKER QUARTET (Thirsty Ear 2002)
15.Vignettes - MARILYN CRISPELL (ECM 2008)

too many concerts, too little time

2009-11-12T09:03:00.005+01:00

On Tuesday, The Moon Invaders were backing up rock steady-legend Pat Kelly in my hometown. A friend just told me that the show was wonderful. I missed it however, because yesterday night, I choose to drive 200km to see Venomous Concept. Since the Brutal Truth show earlier this year might be my concert of the year and as Venomous Concept = ½ Brutal Truth + ½ Napalm Death, I absolutely didn’t want to miss this show. I didn’t like the first two bands but Belgian grind masters Leng Tch’e had some real strong moments and besides, how can you not love a grind core band with an afro-American singer? Venomous Concept fulfilled my expectations. Probably not as mind-blowing as the Brutal Truth show, but still a blasting sound of furious grind core & punk rock. Another kick-ass show for sure!

If you look to the left, you will notice that before the end of the year, there are still a bunch of exciting concerts on the way. Unfortunately, that means less time for reading & watching movies. It’s probably my biggest frustration these days: too little time to enjoy the pleasures of life. On the other hand, I’m not complaining: the idea that artists really brighten my days with their great shows, amazing records, wonderful movies and fascinating books, makes me a happy dude. Life’s what you make it but without the artists, mine would be terribly bleak. Honor where honor’s due.

COMPILATION OF THE YEAR !!!

2009-11-11T17:07:00.004+01:00

I think I just found the compilation of the year in my mailbox. I ordered this attractively-priced 3cd directly from the label and I urge you to do the same 'cuz it's absolutely genius! Praise the Lord, Hallelujah!

DJELIMADY TOUNKARA BLUES PROJECT

2009-11-08T20:17:00.013+01:00

I have always been a big fan of Djelimady Tounkara, the “Guitar Hero” of Manding music. His playing is colorful, elegant and downright fascinating. Yesterday, this African virtuoso came to the Zuiderpershuis in Antwerp to introduce the DJELIMADY TOUNKARA BLUES PROJECT. The show was mind-blowingly good!

Djelimady was born in a family of Griots in the heart of the Malinke; the cradle of the great dynasties of Griots in Mali. At a young age, he had already learned the majority of traditional instruments (balafon, kora, ngoni…) and fairly rapidly discovered a passion for the guitar. Soon, Djelimady started accompanying the Griots at weddings, baptisms and circumcision ceremonies. After contributing to the Orchestre National “A” and “Pioneer Jazz” – Mali’s first modern dance bands - he joined the Super Rail Band at the start of the 1970s and in this way accompanied the first musical steps of Salif Keita and Mory Kanté. The critically-acclaimed “Belle Epoque” series on Sterns Music (three double CDs) tells the story of the band from 1970 to 1983.

In 2001, Djelimady released his first solo record Sigui on the French Label Bleu and 3 years later, the follow-up album Solon Kôno was released on Marabi. Both CDs showcase his brilliant guitar style, heavenly female vocals and wonderful accompaniments on the djembé, doundoun, calabash gourd and ngoni.

Yesterday, Djelimady was surrounded by Moussa Diabate on guitar, Aboubacar Diombana on electric bass and Abou Cissoko on ngoni. The foursome’s playing was subtle and inspiring and all four gave the others the opportunity to show off their virtuosity. Abou Cissoko’s ngoni playing was very intense & challenging while Aboubacar’s bass gave the songs a genuine drive. At times, Moussa Diabate’s guitar almost sounded like a kora and it really felt like a musical heaven to me!

During the whole concert, Djelimady switched between acoustic and electric guitar and one could hear a lot of different styles in his playing: Cuban, Hot Swing, Flamenco… Djelimady masters all those genres! At times, Djelimady & Abou stood up and started an improvising duel with their instruments. The way they used the call-and-response concept of blues music was absolutely thrilling. No wonder the concert finished with a standing ovation and a rousing cry for more!

Together with Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate, Djelimady Tounkara forms the holy trinity of Malian music. Let’s hope the DJELIMADY TOUNKARA BLUES PROJECT will do some studio recording in the very near future because from what I heard & saw yesterday, this is a totally unique band that has the potential & talent to record a masterpiece!

Scandinavia Rocks!

2009-10-31T07:24:00.013+01:00

Here are 3 Scandinavian bands from the nineties that I really liked at the time but never made a big fuzz outside of their homelands.

First is a Swedish band called SOUL PATROL that I know very little off. The CD inlay doesn’t reveal any info about the band or year of release and I don’t even know if they only made one album or more. The only album that I own - ‘Use…’ on CBR Records - features a track called “Slowmoving Revolution” that was a real underground hit at our local youth club at the time. The irresistible drive of the song and the passionate vocals always made me and my friends spill our beers and bang our heads like fools on the dance floor. I include this track although I must admit that it’s pure nostalgia to me and probably sounds terribly outdated or boring to you. The other 2 tracks that I include are the opening song “Heart of Gold – Soul of Ice” and the scorcher “Your Friend For A Day”, tracks that I still cherish today. PLAY LOUD!

Heart of Gold – Soul of Ice – SOUL PATROL mp3
Your Friend For A Day – SOUL PATROL mp3
Slowmoving Revolution – SOUL PATROL mp3

**********

ANAL BABES were a Norwegian band that released a split 7” with BRAINBOMBS on the Belgian Demolition Derby/Pit’sbull Records way back in 1995. The year before, the band had released its second album on Big Ball Records and “Shoot The Hostages” is the opening track of said album, nicely called ‘Delirium or Diarrhea’. ANAL BABES made quite an impression on me when they played at the Democrazy club in Ghent in support of the album. They didn’t want to play on the big stage and choose a dark corner of the club instead. With the exception of 2 black leather gloves, the singer was bare-naked and the band spit out a wild bunch of nasty & hate-driven punk tracks. Don’t miss their wild cover of The Electras’ “Action Woman”!

Shoot The Hostages – ANAL BABES mp3
Action Woman – ANAL BABES mp3

**********

Last but not least is RADIOPUHELIMET from Finland whose lyrics are in Finnish and who sound like The Jesus Lizard making an appearance in a Kaurismäki film. Their album 'Maalla' from 1993 was – like most of the band’s output – released on the Bad Vugum Records label, one of the most interesting labels in Europe during the nineties.
Lãhiõssã – RADIOPUHELIMET mp3
Tee se kotonasi – RADIOPUHELIMET mp3

2009-10-17T14:32:00.005+02:00

© Fazal Sheikh

"Ten oosten van Erzurum is de weg leeg en verlaten. De dorpen liggen ver uit elkaar. En zo kan het om een of andere reden gebeuren dat je de auto langs de kant van de weg zet en de rest van de nacht in de openlucht doorbrengt. Warm ingepakt in een vilten jack, een bontmuts over je oren, hoor je het water koken op de primus, die beschut staat achter een wiel. Geleund tegen een aardhoop kijk je naar de sterren, het golvende landschap richting de Kaukasus, de lichtgevende ogen van een vos. Je verdrijft de tijd met hete thee, af en toe een woord, een sigaret, en dan wordt het licht, het breidt zich uit, kwartels en patrijzen laten zich horen… en je haast je om dit ultieme moment in je geheugen als geheel op te slaan, waaruit je het op een dag weer zult opdiepen. Je rekt je uit, je zet een paar stappen, voelt je heel licht en het woord ‘geluk’ lijkt plotseling veel te mager en beperkt om te beschrijven wat er door je heen gaat.
Want de kern van je leven, dat is niet je familie, je carrière, wat anderen over je zeggen of van je denken, maar dat zijn dit soort momenten, waarop je wordt opgetild door een sublieme kracht, serener nog dan de liefde, die het leven ons slechts karig toebedeelt, omdat ons hart er niet te veel van verdraagt."

Gelezen in De wegen van de wereld (L’Usage du monde - 1963) van Nicolas Bouvier (Uitgeverij Bas Lubberhuizen 2009)

36th GHENT International FILM FESTIVAL

2009-10-08T07:53:00.003+02:00

PERIPHERIQUE EST @ the Pit's

2009-10-05T20:19:00.005+02:00

Last Friday evening turned out to be yet another legendary R&R night at the mighty Pit’s! Although KING SALAMI & THE CUMBERLAND 3 had to cancel their show at the last minute (due to bad management if you ask me), Kortrijk’s own THE GOHARDS were a great replacement. Although it looks like these kids have just come out of the basement, they have a convincing sound of their own, somewhere between CIRCLE JERKS, FLIPPER and BRUTAL KNIGHTS. Certainly a band to keep an eye open for!

All my prejudices against French punk rock were blown away as soon as PERIPHERIQUE EST hit the stage. The band, which consist of 4 Belgians and a Parisian, was a joy to watch with 3 wild rockin’ guitar players, a hyperkinetic drummer and a super dynamic singer. Like The Lazy Cowgirls backing up Plastic Bertrand! Because the first two songs were mind-bogglingly good, I was afraid that the band wouldn’t be able to maintain this super-high level. No need to worry though, as PERIPHERIQUE EST blasted out supreme French punk rock from start to finish! Here’s some raw footage from the godlike show:

thanks to Hugo!

"Waiting For Something”: A short documentary about Jay Reatard

2009-10-01T08:22:00.001+02:00

Here’s a pretty cool short film about Jay Reatard from his own website. Although I’m not really into Jay’s latest stuff, I still think he’s a genuine musician who deserves every bit of praise he gets.

Waiting For Something - a short documentary about Jay Reatard

Girls in the Garage !!!

2009-09-25T21:15:00.014+02:00

Here are 3 female fronted punk rock gems from way back then that definitely did stand the test of time:

First is a song by THE CREAMERS whose debut album 'Love, Honor & Obey' was one of the first records on Sympathy For The Record Industry way back in 1989. Although I did buy the first couple of Sympathy albums at release date (Lazy Cowgirls! Jeff Dahl Group! Clawhammer!), for one reason or another I couldn’t get my hands on that Creamers record. Since the band consisted of 2 Lazy Cowgirls members, I was desperately in need for that record! In 1991, Flipside magazine issued a compilation cd called the Big One which featured a great Creamers song called “What Will The Neighbors Think”, a song originally released on the City of L.A.: Power compilation. In the same year, The Creamers released their second album 'Stick It In Your Ear' on Triple XXX Records. To promote the album, they did a European tour and played a great show at the Democrazy club in Ghent, Belgium. I still got a signed poster inside my copy and remember what a bunch of nice people The Creamers were in person. "Bob Kringle" is one of my all-time favorite Xmas tracks and can be found on an excellent compilation on Triple XXX Records that features their debut album as well as singles and compilation tracks.

Bob Kringle – THE CREAMERS mp3
(This Stuff’ll Kill Ya! – Triple XXX Records 1994)

The second song also comes from a very underrated SFTRI debut album by THE SHORT FUSES. Over here in Europe it did absolutely nothing, not in the least because the band didn’t embark on a European tour to promote it. It’s a shame, really - because it’s an excellent album mixing powerful buzz saw guitars, great hooks and splendid female vocals. "Corvette Summer" is the second track and as far as I’m concerned the pick of the album.

Corvette Summer – THE SHORT FUSES mp3
(Get The Hell Down – SFTRI CD 2000)

I never really understood why the only album by THE TEARS wasn’t released on vinyl because it’s the kind of punk rock & roll that is meant for vinyl. "Miss Queen" has some hysterical Courtney Love-like vocals but instead of boring grunge, we are treated on a superfast & exciting punk rock song. According to Grunnen Rocks, the band only released a 7”, two compilation tracks and a cd and some members are now in Catholic Boys (if they are still around that is), Bold Ones and Hue Blanc's Joyless Ones.

Miss Queen – THE TEARS mp3
(The Tears – Trick Knee Productions CD 2003)

AT DEATH'S DOOR...

2009-09-20T17:36:00.010+02:00

Last week, I went to see 2 death metal bands in my hometown: VOMITORY and MALEVOLENT CREATION. After a brilliant BRUTAL TRUTH show a couple of months ago, I thought it was a good idea to check out some other legendary metal bands. VOMITORY from Sweden have been playing death metal for over 20 years and infuse their sound with a fierce doses of brutal grind core. They played a great show, promoting Dante’s inferno like a new Disneyland park. The singer had a dark & really low guttural voice and most of the time, we only saw a curtain of hair instead of a singer’s face or grunter or how do you call those throat torturers? Power where you need it, definitely!

MALEVOLENT CREATION too has been raising hell for over two decades but the band didn’t show any signs of wear. Their sound was crystal clear but above all devastatingly heavy and brutal. This time, the singer looked like a proud club member of the Confederacy of Scum with his huge spike gauntlets and trucker moustache. Before me, a young girl was head-banging like crazy and I almost pitied her for being confronted with all this brutal mayhem at such a tender age. I hope the band won’t burden her with a mental trauma! Definitely the most ferocious and powerful gig I have seen in ages, both musically and lyric-wise.

Here are some of my favorite metal tracks (although I married a former metal chick, it’s still a genre that I need to explore):

Unholy Blasphemies – MORBID ANGEL mp3
(from Blessed Are The Sick – Earache Records 1991)

Burden – ROTTEN SOUND mp3
(from Exit – Willowtip Records 2005)

Human, All Too Fucking Human – ANAAL NATHRAKH mp3
(from The Codex Necro – Earache Records 2005)

ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO DE COTONOU

2009-09-16T15:25:00.004+02:00

Miles Cleret selects 85 minutes of his favourite tracks from the legendary ORCHESTRE POLY RYTHMO whose debut European tour has just begun. I will be reviewing their upcoming Antwerp show here next week!

2666 - ROBERTO BOLAÑO

2009-09-16T14:05:00.002+02:00

I have just finished reading Roberto Bolaño’s posthumous and colossal novel 2666 and I think it’s an awe-inspiring masterpiece. 2666 may be a first draft (the Chilean-turned-Catalan writer tragically died in 2003 without being able to revise the final draft) the wild chaos and stylistic richness held me from beginning to end. The 5 novellas that are masterfully interwoven were originally intended by Bolaño to be published separately as a way of guaranteeing income for his wife and children after his early death due to liver ailment at age 50. His family along with his Spanish editor however decided to publish the five parts as one volume which is a wise decision I think. There are no defining moments in 2666 and mysteries are never resolved but the sheer abundance of its narrative and its resistance to categorization make 2666 a heroic achievement. What a book!

Stunt Clown - HEADLESS CHICKENS

2009-09-13T09:32:00.005+02:00

I bought the HEADLESS CHICKENS’ debut album ‘Stunt Clown’ the year it was released by Flying Nun Records in 1988. Over the years, I came across this album multiple times in bargain bins and on second hand music fairs. A couple of months ago, I finally bought the CD version of the album for the ridiculous price of €1,00. Nobody else seemed interested, although the cover art stirs the imagination and Flying Nun Records has always been synonym for adventurious and genuine pop music. ‘Stunt Clown’ definitely is the kind of ambitious and unique album that never fails to enthrall and keeps on stirring the listener’s imagination. Here’s the fourth track from the album.

do the headless chicken - HEADLESS CHICKENS mp3

2009-09-06T16:22:00.010+02:00

I can't believe it's already been over 2 months since I wrote something on this blog of mine so I guess it's about time to revive the damn thing. Here are the other films I saw at the L'Age d'Or/Filmvondsten film festival in Brussels in the beginning of July.

KATALIN VARGA **
This first feature-length film by UK film director Peter Strickland was made entirely independently over four years, costing less than 30,000 Euros to make. The film was shot in the Hungarian-speaking part of Romanian Transylvania and follows Katalin Varga when she is banished from her village and sets out on a quest to find the biological father of her son in order to take revenge for what happened in the past. In the Q&A after the screening, Strickland told the audience that he got the idea for the film from a solo record by Nurse With Wound’s Stephen Stapleton who instantly agreed to make the film’s score. Unfortunately, the soundtrack is too explicit and robs the movie of its integrity. Although Béla Tarr collaborator Gyorgy Kovacs creates a vivid picture of the region and the story is well-developed, it often feels like Strickland is imitating his idols. Moreover, some scenes have an irritating horror movie feeling and the end isn’t very memorable. Katalin Varga would have benefited much more from a modest approach like in Kornel Mundruczo’s 2008 Cannes title “Delta”. Now, Katalin Varga is just a nice hommage to the grim and sinister Eastern-European cinema of Béla Tarr and Krzysztof Kieslowski.

POLITIST, ADJECTIV **1/2
An enthralling film that follows a young detective during a time-wasting case trailing weed smoking teenagers. There’s hardly any action, but this slow-paced movie makes the audience participate in an interesting reasoning about the complex question of morality & consciousness. A movie that replays in your mind, long after the credits are gone.

TURISTAS *
I wasn’t impressed by Alicia Scherson’s successful début PLAY and I am equally unimpressed with her second feature. An implausible storyline, uninteresting characters and silly humor.

NO PUEDO VIVIR SIN TI ***
A simple & powerful Taiwanese film about a down and out man and his little daughter who live in an illegal hovel until the authorities intervene and ruin their happy & peaceful life. A sensitive melodrama, shot in black-and-white images.

YUKI & NINA ***
A children’s drama made for adults, with a faint touch of magic-realism. Faced with having to move to Japan with her mother, young Yuki seems more distraught about leaving her best friend Nina than she is about leaving her French father. After failing to change her mom's mind, Yuki runs away with Nina. An original look at the impact of a divorce on children’s behavior.

LE ROI DE L’EVASION ***
A burlesque comedy about a middle aged homosexual man in a small French village becomes involved with a sixteen year old girl. A good laugh!!!

INDEPENDENCIA *
The American occupation of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War is the backdrop of 'Independencia’, a simplistic & boring tale, made in the style of silent films.

WILD FIELDS **
Wild Fields tells the story of a young doctor called Dmitri who is sent to a remote village in the Kazakh steppe. Brilliant cinematography captures the harsh beauty of the landscape, while a host of outstanding performances build a complex picture of the post-Soviet psyche.

KYNODONTAS *
Winner of the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year, this story about a father who is convinced that the best way for his children to remain uncontaminated by the world is to completely cut them off from it lacks persuasiveness. Most of the time, it looks like Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos mocks his own film. A disappointment.

Kynodontas (Dogtooth) - Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

HELP GONE MAD *1/2
A Russian comedy that would have benefited from tighter editing.

2009-07-11T13:45:00.000+02:00

2009-07-02T10:56:00.008+02:00

LA PIVELINA ***

A charming little film about a two-year-old girl found by a circus worker living on the outskirts of Rome. An unpretentious & moving portrait of life in the margins of society.

GIGANTE **

An Uruguayan comedy about a supermarket security guard who becomes obsessed with a late-shift floor cleaner. The film won the grand jury award at the Berlinale along with the first feature film and the Alfred Bauer Prize. A well-made and engaging film although I really don’t understand what all the fuss is about.

BORDER **

A wordless poetic docu-drama that follows life on an Armenian farm through the eyes of a buffalo. The fast editing is a distinct contrast to the slow storyline, but makes the movie digestible.

Into the Heart of Darkness

2009-07-01T08:46:00.007+02:00

Yesterday I read an incredible newspaper article about a Belgian journalist who paddled with a kayak through the heart of darkness of Belgium’s former colony the Congo. Afterwards, I checked the website mentioned at the bottom of the article and it turns out that this heroic man has his own website where you can find pictures and a complete account (in Dutch, French and English!) of his savage travels. What a man!

"I bought the animal and set it free"

Music/Sangam - DON CHERRY & LATIF KHAN

2009-06-20T14:54:00.002+02:00

If I would be on Twitter, I think I would now post a message telling that – at the moment - I am intensely enjoying this magnificent reissue.

AWESOME IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT! (and I haven't even touched a Trappist beer right now)

Sublime Frequencies label night (Hasselt - June 6th 2009)

2009-06-16T09:41:00.004+02:00

I recently went to the SUBLIME FREQUENCIES label night at Kunstencentrum België in Hasselt. Sublime Frequencies is a world music record label based in Seattle and headed by Alan Bishop from THE SUN CITY GIRLS and Hisham Mayet. I was never impressed by THE SUN CITY GIRLS’ music although I had their 2 so-called masterpieces in my record collection at the time: ‘Torch of the Mystics’ from 1990 and ‘330,003 Cross dressers From Beyond the Big Veda’ from 1996. I found the music vague and pretentious, made by a bunch of charlatans who make weird music just for the sake of being weird. A few years ago, I sold both out-of-press albums at a great price on eBay and bought me another bunch of Nonesuch Explorer CD’s with the money.

As a world music aficionado, I really felt I had to check out the SUBLIME FREQUENCIES releases though and although I like some of the labels output, I also found some real stinkers in the catalogue. ’I Remember Syria’ and ‘Radio India’ for example feature a mish-mash of random music culled from Syrian/Indian radio, with the radio being fine-tuned all the time and endless audio distortion throughout the songs. To make things worse, many songs are brutally shortcut in the middle and the lack of any licensing info really reeks of exotica exploitation.

But as I just mentioned, there are also a bunch of worthwhile collections in the SF catalogue: the ‘Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk & Pop Music Vol.1’, ‘Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan’, ‘Choubi Choubi! Folk and Pop Sounds from Iraq’ and ‘Ethnic Minority Music of North Vietnam’ are all good to great compilations of genuine modern or traditional music from out there.

Last year, I bought the OMAR SOULEYMAN compilation ‘Highway to Hassake’ and I was immediately intoxicated by the 2 slow & mesmerizing laments on the compilation. I also like some of the GROUP DOUEH recordings so when I read about an upcoming Sublime Frequencies label night with OMAR SOULEYMAN and GROUP DOUEH, I absolutely didn’t want to miss the opportunity to witness myself what Sublime Frequencies is all about.

The evening took off with the screening of ‘Palace of the Winds’, a 52 minutes documentary by Hisham Mayet focusing on the music of the Saharawis from Southern Morocco and Mauritania. The film consisted mainly of raw & intense live performances by Group Doueh, Group Marwani, Sadoum Oueld Aida and Group Bab Sahara and these home-recordings were interwoven with lo-fi images of desert villages and its inhabitants. Unfortunately and in real Sublime Frequencies style, Mayet doesn’t give the viewer any information which I found rather frustrating as I was wondering at times in what country the images were taken (Morocco or Mauritania?) and on what kind of occasions the bands were playing. Again, it looked like the Sublime Frequencies people are more interested in weird & outsider culture than in the awareness and appreciation of the cultural heritage of others (dixit Smithsonian Folkways). Still, I bought myself a copy of the DVD because I still liked the film and think it’s an interesting addition to my Saharawis 3CD box set on Nubenegra.

As soon as ‘Palace of the Winds’ was over, GROUP DOUEH took the stage and treat us to some great desert music. Although the keyboard sounded very cheesy, both the guitar playing and the male and female lead singers were excellent. The music reminded me of Dimi Mint Abba with its hypnotic and trance-like feeling. Great!

Next was a documentary shot on the Jemnaa El Fna square in Marrakesh ('Musical Brotherhoods of the Trans-Saharan Highway'). Last year, I visited the square myself but in the documentary, it looked like the images were shot somewhere else. Firstly, you didn’t see any tourists in the film (and there are a lot) and the musicians were much more interesting in the film than those I had witnessed myself on the square. Still, a nice way to feel some of the square’s vibrancy!

In the middle of the documentary, I had to rush away because OMAR SOULEYMAN had taken the stage. Although the audience loved every note, I wasn’t really impressed by Souleyman’s Syrian disco with techno beats. I found the virtuosi electric saz player of more interest than Souleyman himself who reminded me sometimes of the Syrian equivalent of Eddie Wally. After three quarter of an hour, the band suddenly switched to a slow hypnotic song but as the audience had come to party, the song was abandoned after a mere 2 minutes and the band continued with their ruthless party beats.

At the end of the night, Bishop and Mayet did some DJ-ing (no vinyl, just cd’s and cd-roms) and screened some amusing film footage from all over the world. As I was looking at the screen above the stage, I saw a photographer asking Bishop and Mayet if he could take their picture while DJ-ing. They agreed but all of a sudden, when the picture was taken, Bishop and Mayet raised their right arm to give the Hitler-salutation. I know the swastika has been known in India for over 5,000 years but I don’t think the Nazi-salutation has an ancient tradition. Oh well, charlatans - right?

Desperado - THE POOH STICKS

2009-06-12T20:59:00.007+02:00

If push comes to shove, “Desperado” by THE POOH STICKS might be my all-time favorite power-pop song! It’s catchy as hell, it’s pretty wild & each time I hear it again, it makes me very happy. A real hidden gem, forgotten by anyone but me, my wife & Michael Kastelic. That’s right, the singer of THE CYNICS almost kissed me on the cheek when I played “Desperado” before the band went on stage in my hometown some 15 years ago (gee, I’m getting old!!!). In an ideal world, “Desperado” is the kind of tune you would hear blasting out of convertible sports cars!

Desperado - THE POOH STICKS mp3

"Desperado" is the fifth track from 'The Great White Wonder', the second POOH STICKS album from 1991, released on Cheree Records in the UK.

THE UPSETTERS: Unsung Heroes of Rock & Roll !!!

2009-06-05T13:17:00.008+02:00

The Upsetters are one of my favourite R&B outfits. Unfortunately, their music is very hard to find. Here’s some information from the liner notes of a 1984 Charly Records compilation called “The Upsetters: The New Orleans Connection”, written by the late great Ray Topping:

Around October 1957, Little Richard gave up rock ‘n’ roll for the church and his retirement left his backing band, the Upsetters out on a limb. They had many advance bookings and engagements to fulfil and set about looking for a replacement. In Chicago they met Dee Clark, a versatile vocalist who had previously sung in several vocal quartets. Billed as Little Richard, Clark set off with the Upsetters to complete a mid western tour. On their return the Upsetters signed with Vee Jay and accompanied Clark on “Oh Little Girl” and “Wondering” – (Falcon 1009, see CRB 1010). On the same date, January 17th 1958, the Upsetters cut two great instrumentals “The Strip” and “Upsetter” (Falcon 1010) and their saxophonist, Wilbert Smith (who also doubled on piano) sang on “Hatti Malatti” and “Mama Loochie” (Vee Jay 272). Smith who used the stage name of Lee Diamond on these sides, came from New Orleans and had previously played with the bands of Roy Brown and James Brown, he also co-wrote “Slippin’ and Slidin’” and introduced Little Richard to his revised version; Eddie Bo had first recorded it for Apollo. “Hatti Malatti” became a regional break out in many Southern markets, and the flip “Mama Loochie” was a feature of DeeJay ‘Hound Dog’ Lorenz memory tune show for many years.

The nucleus of the Upsetters started life as various parts of the Pluma Davis and Gatemouth Brown bands. In Houston around 1955 where they accompanied Big Walter Price on his famous Peacock recordings of “Pack Fair And Square”. Grady Gaines, who later became their leader, also accompanied David Dean and Earl Forrest on a number of Duke and Peacock recordings. Grady Gaines’ brother Roy Gaines was starting to make his name as a leading session guitarist in Houston about this time. Roy went off to lead Chuck Willis’ band while Grady went on the road with the Upsetters backing Little Richard. Grady played lead Tenor Sax and wrote charts. Other members of the Upsetters included Clifford Burks (tenor sax), Larry Lennear (Barritone sax), Wilbert Smith (Piano and tenor sax), Nathaniel Douglas (guitar), Osie Robinson (bass), and Emile Russell (drums). Russel replaced the original drummer Charles Conner.

The Upsetters second session for Vee Jay later in 1958 produced 4 more sides: “Upsetter Rock”, “Baldhead Baby”, “Wake Up” and “Girl in Every City”. These sides remained unissued until now. “Upsetter Rock” and “Wake Up” are powerhouse instrumentals featuring the guitar of Nathaniel Douglas and the latter bears an uncanny resemblance to the Athmosphere’s “Fiddle Chicken”. If you listen closely to the end of “Upsetter Rock”, you hear somebody shout “Oh My Soul”. Is this Little Richard or could it be Lee Diamond doing a good impression?

The Upsetters returned for a third session in 1959 but unfortunately the tapes have been lost. In the early sixties Lee Diamond returned to New Orleans where he recorded for Minit, Lola and Bourbon Street, and wrote “Tell It Like It Is” for Aaron Neville with George Davis. He was last heard playing in Joe Jones’ band when they came to New York in 1965.

The Upsetters continued to record and a slew of singles appeared on many labels including Gee, Fire, Palm and H.B. Barnum’s label Little Star, where they re-united with their old buddy Little Richard who sang (uncredited) on “I’m In Love Again”, “Everynight About This Time” and “Valley Of Tears”.

In 2003, a bootleg cd with 27 Upsetters songs appeared on La Cienega Records (Made in Spain). Roots & Rhythm may still have a few copies for sale so don't hesitate because The Upsetters were surely one of the most exciting rock ‘n’ roll bands of the 50’s! Here are 5 classic Upsetters tracks for you to enjoy:

The Strip – THE UPSETTERS mp3
Upsetter – THE UPSETTERS mp3
Hatti Malatti – LEE DIAMOND AND THE UPSETTERS mp3
Mama Loochie – LEE DIAMOND mp3
Upsetter Rock – THE UPSETTERS mp3

15 GEMS

2009-05-30T15:54:00.028+02:00

Here are the 15 films that made the biggest impression on me so far in 2009 (minus STELLA which I reviewed earlier):

LA FRONTIERE DE L’AUBE

Philippe Garrel proves once again that he is one of cinema’s greatest poets today with this beautiful and contemplative film exploring the destructive power of love. The spectacular black and white photography is a work of art by itself and the performances are impeccable. An intelligent movie that stays in your mind and haunts you like a ghost.

24 CITY

A masterly combination of fact and fiction by today’s leading Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke, co-written with the poet Zhai Yongming. Another tour-de-force that portrays China’s modern history and turns it into poetry.

THE CHASER

A hyperventilating South-Korean action-packed crime thriller that will please lovers of Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Memories of Murder & The Host. See the original South Korean box office hit before it is watered down by a planned Warner Bros. remake.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES

What more can I add to this review of a superbly directed film about the day-to-day lives of four disconnected young women living and working in the metropolis of Tokyo. Released in 2006 and thanks to the Cinema Novo Film Festival finally to be enjoyed on the big screen in Belgium last March. A highly refined and subdued drama that I can’t praise enough.

MILK

Not the Gus Van Sant homage to Harvey Milk but the second film of Semih Kaplanoglu’s trilogy Egg-Milk-Honey, in which the Turkish director sketches long, tranquil tableaux of rural life. This allegoric quest for the meaning of existence, family, adulthood and the challenges imposed by tradition is cinema pur sang.

FOUR NIGHTS WITH ANNA

Four Nights with Anna is the first film in 17 years from the great Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski and it is a real triumph: a grim movie reminiscent of Béla Tarr and Krzysztof Kieslowski. The fact that these kind of gloomy, sinister Eastern-European films are still being made today made my trip to Rotterdam all the more worthwhile!

THE SOUND OF INSECTS - RECORD OF A MUMMY THE SOUND OF INSECTS

A rather experimental movie about a man aged forty who starves himself in a remote forest and writes about his observations in a diary. The film ignores all kinds of feature-film conventions and mixes precise observations of the surrounding nature, vague memories, dream sequences & flashbacks. A real piece of cinema art that never ceases to amaze you.

INLAND

After ROME RATHER THAN YOU, Teguia has made another remarkable film in which he links two important causes of alienation: the influence of terror on local populations and the migration of men without prospects. With a length of 138 minutes and a minimalist approach to plot and dialogue, I am afraid it’s only for the die-hard cinephile. Great soundtrack with music by Ina Djakou, Christian Fennesz, Cheikha Djenia, Fela Kuti, Sonic Youth, Terry Riley & Bismillah Khan.

THREE MONKEYS

A Turkish film noir by one of my favorite contemporary directors. Intense performances and mesmerizing cinematography: awesome movie!

LEONERA

Sometimes when leaving a theatre, you expect a film to become a huge hit but most of the time, it doesn’t. Leonera is a typical example but don’t ask me why because Pablo Trapero’s latest is an engrossing drama about a pregnant women who gets imprisoned for manslaughter. The almost documentary-style, realistic approach makes the movie powerful & emotional. Rent it on DVD and prove me wrong!

LA MAISON JAUNE

A charming Moroccan countryside film that I finally got a chance to see on the big screen. An honest little gem of a film, simple but accurate.

OCEAN FLAME

An arty and erotic Hong-Kong drama about self-destruction. Although criticism like this might be justified, the movie is never boring or arty-farty.

PAPER SOLDIER

This Russian film set in the early 1960s and featuring an emotionally vulnerable doctor working with the first team of Soviet cosmonauts confirms that Russian cinema is reappearing on the world cultural map. Some scenes reminded me a lot of the great master of Russian cinema Andrej Tarkovsky. Another great new Russian film seen in Rotterdam was Alexei Balabov’s MORPHIA.

LA MUJER SIN CABEZA

This fascinating tale about a women who loses her memory due to a car accident poses more questions than it delivers answers so for many, it might be a very frustrating film to watch. I enjoyed it a lot because I became fascinated by the way Lucrecia Martel plays with reality and imagination.

FILM IST. A GIRL & A GUN

The result of the exploration of dozens of film archives looking for exciting and challenging old images. A visual feast of exciting images and fascinating music by Bohren & Der Club Of Gore.

In 2009 I also liked and recommend Songs from the Southern Seas, El Regalo de la Pachamama, Firaaq, Vacation, Katanga Business, Treeless Mountain, A Festa de Menina Morta, All Around Us, Funuke Show Some Love, Parque Via, Z32, Puisque Nous Sommes Nés, La Vida Loca, Serbis, Izulu Lami, Liverpool, Tokyo Sonata, Before The Burial, Survival Song, Khiam 2000-2007, The Wrestler, Il Divo, Teza and Los Abrazos Rotos.

But then again, it’s all very personal. For example, every critic hails Kore-eda’s STILL WALKING at the moment but I found the movie rather tame and boring. Still, I do believe that some readers might share my passion for the 15 above mentioned films.

Two killer shows last week!

2009-05-19T10:19:00.009+02:00

Firstly, BRUTAL KNIGHTS turned the Pit’s once again into an incredible moshpit with people & beers constantly flying through the air & great tunes being played at a devastating tempo. Add a very entertaining singer/stand-up comedian & a cool club vibe and you get what I call the ultimate gig. Oh what a night!

Two days later, I went to see KING PLEASURE & THE BISCUIT BOYS in my hometown and I wish I had brought my camera along because the band was a real treat for the eye with their blue tuxedos & cool instruments (standup bass, saxophones, piano, etc.). The music was absolutely killer: pure 50’s swing the way it is meant to be played: rocking’ & rolling! The band played a bunch of awesome covers like The Champs’ “Tequila” & Louis Prima’s “Oh Marie”. Thumbs up too for the opening band TIPITINA whose line-up existed of the piano player and drummer of The Biscuit Boys and a charming retro lady who had a great voice and lifted the fine covers by Dr. John, Nina Simone & Ray Charles to new heights. Unfortunately, the show was criminally under attended which, on the other hand, resulted in a lot of space on the dance floor. Something you definitely need when King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys are in the house!

Goner Records

2009-05-18T20:09:00.002+02:00

2009-05-11T22:54:00.000+02:00

2009-05-05T20:04:00.005+02:00

Here's a brilliant quote by the still much missed JOHN PEEL from an interview with David B. Livingstone, published in Your Flesh #29 (1994).

“I think it’s a pity that audiences have become so sectarian in their tastes, where if you like one form of music you’re pretty much excluded from liking another. There is so much outstanding stuff to be heard. If you’ve never heard any of the great Zairian guitar players like Diblo Dibala… I could give you a long list of names. These are names that you should have tattooed on your forehead, really, because they are magical men. They can do things with guitars that you can’t believe; not just vulgar displays of technique, but their ability to play on your emotions is stunning. And if you cut yourself off from it, thinking “Oh, I don’t like that sort of thing”, you do yourself a grotesque disservice. For me, the important thing with our children and anyone that I talk to really is that you ought to keep your range of options, of choices, open, because people can’t wait to shut ‘em down, you know? People want to be able to define themselves in a series of absolutes, you know, and a lot of people by the time they’re eighteen are virtually dead, as far as I’m concerned, because they’ve decided, “This is who I am, this is what my attitude to this is, what I watch, what I eat, what I listen to, who I talk to”. And that seems to me to be really, literally terrifying, because it does you untold damage, and makes you very vulnerable to the influence of demagogues.”

To the memory of John: Muungano - ORCHESTRA MAKASSY mp3

RED MASS

2009-05-03T10:10:00.006+02:00

Here’s the link to an amazing studio session by RED MASS, the band that was born out of the ashes of the CPC GANGBANGS; one of the best garage punk bands of the 21st century. RED MASS has released a couple of 7-inches and a 10-inch and I hope they will release their debut album very soon. In the meantime, let’s enjoy this wonderful session. If there’s any justice left in this cruel world, RED MASS should become HUGE!

Fire Music

2009-05-02T07:46:00.007+02:00

Last year's "Beyond Quantum" album by Anthony Braxton/Milford Graves/William Parker (Tzadik, 2008) is one of the most exciting contemporary free jazz albums I have heard in a long time. All five tracks are freely improvised and impeccably produced by Bill Laswell. A real tour-de-force by a brilliant trio and an absolutely essential release!

Years ago, Grand Royale magazine published Thurston Moore's personnal top ten free jazz albums. In case you still haven't see that list, here it is once again:

1. DAVE BURRELL - Echo (BYG 529.320/Actuel Volume 20)

2. MILFORD GRAVES & DON PULLEN - Nommo (S.R.P. LP-290)

3. ARTHUR DOYLE Plus 4 - Alabama Feeling (AK-BA AK-1030)

4. SONNY MURRAY - Sonny's Time Now (Jihad 663)

5. THE RIC COLBECK QUARTET - The Sun Is Coming Up (Fontana 6383 001)

6. JOHN TCHICAI AND CADENTIA NOVA DANICA - Afrodisiaca (MPS CRM711)

7. RASHIED ALI and FRANK LOWE - Duo Exchange (Survival SR101)

8. THE PETER BROTZMANN SEXTET/QUARTET - Nipples (Calig - CAL30604)

9. THE MARZETTE WATTS ENSEMBLE - (Savoy MG-12193)

10. MARION BROWN - In Sommerhausen (Calig 30 605)
BLACK ARTISTS GROUP - In Paris, Aries 1973 (BAG 324 000)
FRANK WRIGHT QUARTET - Uhuru Na Umoja (America 30 AM 6104)/
DR. UMEZU-SEIKATSU KOJYO IINKAI - (SKI NO. 1)
CECIL TAYLOR - Indent, part 2 (Unit Core 30555)

Most of these albums have been reissued on CD on different labels. You can find more info about the original albums here.

2009-04-25T09:53:00.009+02:00

What a better way to revive this blog by sharing my new compilation with you? Download it here, burn it on a CD-ROM and enjoy some great tunes!

1. Oh How She Dances – TAV FALCO PANTHER BURNS
(Midnight In Memphis - Triple X Records CD 1992)

2. A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall – THE STAPLE SINGERS
(The Ultimate Staple Singers: A Family Affair 1955-1984 - Ace Records 2CD 2004)

3. Skinny White Girl – TRAILER BRIDE
(Hope is a thing with Feathers - Bloodshot Records CD 2003)

4. Blue Yodel #2 (My Lovin’ Gal Lucille) – THE RHYTHM WRECKERS
(Roots N'Blues: The Retrospective (1925-1950) - Columbia/Legacy 4CD 1992)

5. Elegua Quiere Tambo – CELIA CRUZ
(100% Alcuzar: The Best of Celia Cruz Con La Sonora Matancera - Rhino Records CD 1997)

6. Helen Fordsdale – MARS
(New York Noise: Dance Music From The New York Underground 1978-1982 - Soul Jazz Records CD 2003)

7. Undertaker – THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282
(Admonishing the Bishops - Matador Records MCD 1993)

8. Run On For A Long Time – BILL LANDFORD & THE LANDFORDAIRES
(There Will Be No Sweeter Sound: The Columbia Okeh Post War Gospel Story 1947-1962 - Columbia/Legacy 2CD 1998)

9. Es Largo El Camino – ANA Y JAIME
(Es Largo El Camino - Amort002 CD)

10. Slow Day For The Cleaner – GRIFTERS
(the Eureka e.p. - Shangri-La Records CD 1995)

11. Badi’ah Masabni – AL-GHAIRAH NAR AL-GHAIRAH
(Women of Egypt 1924-1931: Pioneers of stardom and fame - Topic Records CD 2006)

12. The Great Valerio – RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON
(I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight - Universal Island Records CD 2004)

13. Roll Over Beethoven – CHARLIE FEATHERS
(Honky Tonk Man + Jungle Fever - New Rose CD)

14. Kimble – LEE PERRY
(The Upsetter: Essential Madness From The Scratch Files - Metro/Union Square Music CD 2000)

15. Leaning On You – THE YO-YO’S
(A History of Garage & Frat Bands In Memphis 1960-1975 - Shangri-La Records CD)

16. The Box – THE GOLDEN BOYS
(Goodbye Country - Monofuss Records CD 2008)

17. Charlie Bill Nelson – LEE HAZLEWOOD
(Strung Out On Something New: The Reprise Recordings - Rhino Handmade 2CD 2007)

18. Mercy On My Soul – EARL GAINES
(24 Hours A Day - Black Magic Records CD 1998)

James Purdy RIP

2009-03-18T12:05:00.003+01:00

James Purdy, author of underground classics, dies.

CINEMA NOVO Film Festival

2009-03-13T09:58:00.005+01:00

I am at the CINEMA NOVO film festival in Bruges right now and I am really looking forward to the 40 films I selected! Mood = excited!!!

Next week, I also hope to publish a brief account on the films I saw at the recent INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM.

Here's what I've been listening to during the last couple of weeks:

- FLY GIRLS! B-BOYS BEWARE: REVENGE OF THE SUPER FEMALE RAPPERS! (Soul Jazz Records 2x2LP 2009)

- Samora Machel - SHALAWAMBE (Mondeca Records LP 1989)

- Le Meilleur de CHEB KHALED (Blue Silver CD 1991)

- The Legend: India's Best-Loved Singer - LATA MANGESHKAR (Manteca 2CD 2006)

- ROLL YOUR MONEYMAKER: EARLY BLACK ROCK 'N ROLL 1948-1958 (Trikont CD 2009)

- Blues With A Beat - THE GRIFFIN BROTHERS (Acrobat Records CD 2003)

- Alone & Together - CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL (Sacred Bones Records LP 2008)

- Shakti - DAVID S. WARE (Aum Fidelity CD 2009)

- The Unreleased Recordings - HANK WILLIAMS (Time Life 3CD 2008)

- ... For the Whole World to See - DEATH (Drag City CD 2009)

- Alight of Night - CRYSTAL STILTS (Slumberland Records CD 2009)

- 200 Million Thousand - BLACK LIPS (Vice Records CD 2009)

- Unbelievable Sounds - SCOTTY (Trojan Records LP 1988)

- Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959) - RAY CHARLES (Rhino Records 7CD/DVD 2005)

- Onyina's Guitar Band - KING ONYINA (PAM Records CD 1999)

2009-03-06T20:00:00.008+01:00

Here’s one of my alltime favorite jamaican dancehall tracks from the 1980’s. Don’t know much about HORSEMAN but I think he really was a one-hit wonder. Doesn’t matter, because his claim to faim is justified by this killer 12”… Enjoy da ride!!!

Horsemove (Giddi-up) - HORSEMAN (12") mp3

Watch out for more forgotten killer dancehall tunes from the 80s in the near future!

IT'S ALIVE !!!

2009-03-06T18:50:00.018+01:00

Last Friday, I drove with a couple of friends just across the border to a place called La Boîte à Musiques (Wattrelot, France). Firstly, STINKY LOU AND THE GOON MAT WITH LORD BENARDO entered the stage and played a very cool, hard-rocking blues set. It was the third time that I witnessed this lively trio on stage and they still remain my current favorite Belgian live act. Juke joint blues like it’s meant to be played: raw & savage! Their debut album on Voodoo Rhythm doesn’t do them justice and I think they should better have released a live album because that’s where the real action is. Like I said before: don’t miss this ultra-exciting live band if you have the opportunity!

****

I had never really cared about BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES but because some people had told me that their recent live show at the 4AD club was absolutely stunning, I certainly wanted to see for myself what all the fuss was about. The reason why I used to be biased towards BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES is that the band name always reminded me of trendy-ass bands like the BRAND NEW HEAVIES. Mea culpa, because the BRAND NEW HEAVIES - oops, BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES turned out to be the ultimate live band! Imagine 2 guys: one incredibly talented drummer and a maniacal but very soulful singer/organist. They kick off with a hard-stompin’ version of “Nutbush City Limits” and you immediately realize you’re in for something very special! Rock music without guitars?!?? Well, I must admit that the organ sometimes sounded like it hid 5 guitars inside! The two-man band rocked their asses off and fused blues, soul & rock in a very majestic way. Without a doubt one of the most intense shows I’ve seen in recent years so please go check out the band if you have the chance. BRAND NEW H… damnit! BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES RULE!!!

(thanks to Ollie for the pictures)

The Power of Pussy

2009-03-03T09:12:00.008+01:00

I think I’ll use the following absolutely gorgeous photograph as my personal desktop background for the rest of my life!

(click to enlarge)

More exciting Viva Van Story retro pictures can be found here.

WHEELS ON FIRE

2009-03-01T10:02:00.020+01:00

I’m a Johnny-come-lately as far as WHEELS ON FIRE is concerned. I first stumbled upon this band from Athens, Ohio when I saw their eponymous debut album listed in Herman Van Der Horst’s 2006 year end list in the Dutch music magazine OOR. Since Van Der Horst has turned me onto a lot of great albums during the last 20 years, I knew I had to check out this album. The next day, I found a copy of the said magazine in the public library with Van Der Horst’s review of the album and I immediately realized that I was in for a real treat. Read with me:

Let’s call it garage rock for convenience’s sake. The band itself - an illustrious five some formed around the brothers Mike and Matt Chaney from Athens, Ohio - hates sub labels like ‘alternative’ and ‘garage’. Wheels on Fire is a rock & roll band, got it?! On close inspection, they are totally right. The problem is that the term ‘rock & roll’ has become tarnished these days since everybody calls his band a rock & roll band. Wheels on Fire on the other hand, makes rock & roll with an urgency, a tension and the kind of necessity that is very hard to find among rock & roll bands these days. A kind of music where country, blues and sane insanity come together and where an unpretentious I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude merges with subtlety, devotion and inspiration. Briefly, a rock & roll band with soul, like they used to say for want of anything better. Eleven gritty and compelling gems not really produced but rather smashed into grooves in a flurry of excitement by Teddy Morgan. Chased by a manic Farfisa organ and a singer who possesses the same kind of intensity and desperation as Sky Saxon (The Seeds) or a very young Van Morrison (Them). Infinitely more significant and deeper than most of all those so-called ‘important’ releases by bands who disappear into oblivion after two weeks. Wheels on Fire makes you believe again in rock & roll and that’s why they are timeless.
(Herman Van Der Horst - Oor nr. 11 – December 2006)

Pretty convincing, huh? The great news is that Van Der Horst hit the nail right on the head: WHEELS ON FIRE is a band to cherish for the rest of your life! The bad news however, is that WHEELS ON FIRE doesn’t fit a category and consequently doesn’t get the recognition the band truly deserves: WHEELS ON FIRE is too punk for Americana-lovers and too Americana for punk rockers.

Early 2007, I got in touch with the band and arranged a show at the wonderful 4AD club in Diksmuide. The five some played a great set and all band members turned out to be very nice people. I told Mike Chaney, one of the two lead singers/guitar players in the band, that the organ often reminded me of Gene Moore’s haunting organ music in Herk Harvey’s cult classic 'Carnival Of Souls' and he admitted that this low-budget cult film from 1962 has been a big favorite of the band.

A couple of months later, I read on the band’s MySpace that their van got stolen, including all the equipment. I feared that this could mean the end for a band that still couldn’t reckon on a decent fan base but they struggled through and recorded another bunch of songs. They gave the demo to Jack Oblivian who passed it on to Bruce Watson of Fat Possum Records. Watson loved the songs and has just released WHEELS ON FIRE’s second album on his own Big Legal Mess Records label. It’s got an appropriate title: 'Get Famous!'

'Get Famous!' may not be the stellar killer album that their memorable debut was, but after repeated listening, I think it is a very worthy follow-up album to the band’s debut album. It’s more straightforward than 'Wheels On Fire', but it also features some killer songs like the Stones-style blues swagger of "Corkscrew Blues" or the wonderful "Two Time Loser" which could as well have been a Reigning Sound song.

I was able to book a last minute show at the Bar Mondial in Antwerp last week and again, they put on a great performance for way too few people. WHEELS ON FIRE no longer has a bass player but the overall sound doesn’t suffer from it: the wailing organ is still prominent and Mike & John’s blistering guitars and dual lead vocals do still sound heartfelt and inspiring. One of the highlights of the show was an amazing cover of The Compulsive Gamblers’ "Rock 'n' Roll Nurse".

In the near future, I hope to do an interview with this awe-inspiring band. In the meantime, I suggest you finally check out the band’s both albums! Here are 2 tracks from the new album:

Too Stubborn to Fold - WHEELS ON FIRE mp3

Corkscrew Blues - WHEELS ON FIRE mp3

UNSPOKEN (Fien Troch)

2009-02-15T17:52:00.014+01:00

UNSPOKEN, the second feature by Belgian film maker Fien Troch received its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival last September. A month later, I attended the national premiere at the Ghent International Film Festival. At the time, I hadn’t seen her first feature from 2005 (Someone Else’s Happiness) but it had received positive feedback and I was curious about her new film because it featured Emmanuelle Devos, one of my favorite actresses today. UNSPOKEN turned out to be an intimate gem.

The film focuses on a couple’s inability to communicate, five years after the disappearance of their daughter. Next to its brilliant acting, UNSPOKEN’s visual language is mesmerizing. When I came out of the theatre, I absolutely wanted to see this film again. This week, UNSPOKEN is being released in Belgium and I would like to use the opportunity to urge all of you to check out this amazing movie.

Here’s an interview with UNSPOKEN’s very talented young director.

(original Dutch text free upon request)

One of the main assets of UNSPOKEN is the outstanding choice of the leading actress and the male lead. Did you write the script with Emmanuelle Devos (Grace) and Bruno Todeschini (Lucas) in mind? How did you get in touch with them?

When I started writing the script, I already had both in mind. It feels much comfortable when you can visualize a character, even if you run the risk that you never might work with them. It’s much easier to write a script with concrete images in mind.

I was able to send the script directly to Bruno through a friend of mine. He responded almost immediately and was very enthusiastic. We made an appointment and had a very relaxed & comfortable talk. He reassured me, especially because of his enthusiasm for the story and for my first feature Someone Else’s Happiness.

I contacted Emmanuelle Devos through her agent. It took a long time because usually your script ends up on top of a pile and you got to have luck if your script gets read at all. I think I waited almost 4 months, phoning and checking if they already read it every now and then. Ultimately, I received a phone call by her agent telling me that she had read it and that she was anxious to do it. I made an appointment with her in Paris. Again, it was a very relaxed talk and she too was enthusiastic about the script and about Someone Else’s Happiness.

You were pregnant while shooting UNSPOKEN. Did you feel emotionally more sensitive in comparison with the shooting of Someone Else’s Happiness? Did your pregnancy had an impact on UNSPOKEN?

I am almost certain that my pregnancy affected my film very little. During my pregnancy, I was very dynamic and didn’t have changing moods or emotional outbursts. UNSPOKEN is much more intimate and sensitive than Someone Else’s Happiness but I don’t think my pregnancy has anything to do with it. Of course, there is no proof that my film would have turned out differently without my pregnancy but I always prepare myself meticulously before the shooting which is in fact just the realization of these preparations which were done before my pregnancy.

In a certain scene, it looks like the baker who is visited by Lucas suddenly runs into a door or wall. I found this scene completely wacky…

I am a fan of the kind of lighthearted humor where people run into walls or fall from chairs. Besides, I was looking for elements that would provoke absurd or funny situations whenever Lucas is at work, especially to stress the contrast with the situation at home. In this way, the baker gets so nervous that he doesn’t know any longer what to do and consequently crashes into the door. Although I realize he could as well have staged the scene to avoid the inspection but that’s something that I leave to the audience.

In a beautiful scene, we hear The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby”. What was first: the song or the scene?

The scene was already there when I heard that sudden song on the radio again. I downloaded it and listened to it a couple of times, also while writing the script. I suddenly realized that it would be the perfect song for that scene. So we used it while shooting the scene and fortunately, we were able to get the rights.

Both Someone Else’s Happiness and UNSPOKEN deal with parents who lost a child. As a young woman just in her thirties, what fascinates you in the subject?

I don’t think it’s the subject itself that fascinates me but the emotions it provokes and that I want to use to tell my story. Usually, I start to write down situations and only then enters the idea of the lost child. It enables me to seek extremes in the emotions of my characters.

Thanks for your time and good luck with the movie!

Bargain of the month!

2009-02-12T14:32:00.004+01:00

Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959)
RAY CHARLES (Rhino Records 8 CD box set)

Temporarily at sale for £29,99 at http://www.rhino.co.uk
(Amazon price is £93.98!) - I hope you're not busted ;-)

2009-02-08T13:19:00.000+01:00

NEVER EVER LAND

2009-02-07T20:03:00.002+01:00

Here’s an amazing 3 CD compilation box set that was released by Charly Records last year but that I didn’t see mentioned in any of the year end polls that I came across. And that’s a crying shame because NEVER EVER LAND is up there with the very best label compilations on the market. Texas-based International Artists Records was responsible for producing some of the most exciting and influential garage & psych sounds of the Sixties. Compiler Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills classifies the songs into 3 groups: Disc One is called GARAGE- THE TEXAN EARTHQUAKE and is perfectly balanced between well-known bands like The 13th Floor Elevators or The Red Crayola and obscure bands like The Golden Dawn or Sterling Damon. Disc Two is subtitled OUT THERE! THE PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDS OF I.A. and offers 26 other garage/psych nuggets before it clocks in at 77.57 minutes with a 60-second radio spot for the Elevators album “Bull Of The Woods”. Boring psych is nowhere to be found: these are killer tracks, drenched in fuzz guitars and heavy percussion! Again, we hear tracks by The 13th Floor Elevators and The Red Crayola, but also discover fantastic bands like The Bubble Puppy and Lost And Found. Finally, Disc Three says POT POURRI – POP AND ANYTHING GOES and then you start to realize just what an awkward way it is to classify the Texan label’s recordings into these 3 subdivisions. When I say that POT POURRI – POP AND ANYTHING GOES features great songs by Lightnin’ Hopkins and country singer Tom Harvey, I suppose you get the idea. Still, NEVER EVER LAND is a killer compilation (did I mention the wonderful 48-page booklet yet?) that you simply cannot afford to miss, especially at such a great price! Buy it now before it’s too late!

Listen to the track that opens CD2: Hot Smoke And Sasafrass – The Bubble Puppy (1968)

Lux Interior RIP

2009-02-05T08:40:00.006+01:00

Only last week was I discussing with a couple of friends how I still like THE CRAMPS' "A Date With Elvis" album from 1986 and now Lux is no more.
Personally I think THE CRAMPS & RAMONES are the real godfathers of the 1990s garage punk explosion and I also loved how The Cramps unearthed tons of essential 50's & 60's rarities. I think I'm gonna reread that mighty ReSearch interview with Lux & Ivy tonight. RIP LUX!

You can download the extensive ReSearch interview with Lux and Ivy that ran in Incredibly Strange Music by clicking here.

howling blues

2009-02-02T13:20:00.002+01:00

"Ghostrider Every Day" compilation CDR

2009-02-01T15:51:00.007+01:00

I have just finished and uploaded a one hour CDR compilation with a bunch of tunes you might like. You can download it here for free.

Track listing:

1. Ghostrider - ALAN VEGA
2. New Wave Hippies - PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT
3. Mummys Secret Storage - BLECTUM FROM BLECHDOM
4. Dheem Thana Thana Nana - S.P. BALASUBRAHMANYAM
5. Dance Alone - THE HUNCHES
6. The Nose One - SHOES THIS HIGH
7. Tihar Bayatin - TARTIT
8. Grayere Nafun - LOBI TRAORE
9. Sabafolo - ADAMA DIABATE
10. My Narrow Mind - 16 HORSEPOWER
11. Winterland - DIED PRETTY
12. Noir Desir - VIVE LA FETE
13. Atabat (2) - OMAR SOULEYMAN
14. Trouble Every Day - TINDERSTICKS

Variety is the Spice of Life!

OUT OF OFFICE

2009-01-22T10:43:00.004+01:00

STELLA ****

2009-01-20T11:54:00.003+01:00

Films like STELLA really brighten my days! This genuine story of a 11-year-old heroine whose parents run a boisterous working-class bar, takes off when the girl enters an exclusive Paris middle school. The film subsequently tells about Stella’s everyday struggles to survive at school and at home where she finds solace with the daughter of an intellectual Argentinean Jew and some lowlife barfly. The film splendidly depicts a melancholic 1970s feel and the acting is simply wonderful. For her third feature film, Paris born director Sylvie Verheyde turned to her own childhood for inspiration and the result is a moving yet unsentimental coming-of-age drama that I can’t praise enough. Definitely a must-see!

RIP Ray Topping

2009-01-20T08:50:00.005+01:00

I once shared two words with this walking encyclopedia of American roots music at the Blues Estafette in Utrecht. Seemed like a real nice fellow. Thanks for all those great Ace compilations, Ray!

Ray with Jules Bihari 1979

Ray Topping obituary with tributes from colleagues and friends
Don't forget to read the wonderful tributes at the bottom!

THE WEIRD AND NOT SO WEIRD - Mixtape

2009-01-19T18:35:00.003+01:00

Here's the link to a new mixtape by my pal Miguel. It's all punk rock & roll this time so shove the furniture aside and go ape!

Tracklisting:
01 Eddy Current Suppression Ring - You let me be honest with you
02 Snake Flower II - Flight of the Navigator
03 Turpentine Brothers - Why can't I do
04 A.H. Kraken - Allan Müller
05 France has the bomb - World Of Mirrors
06 Jay Reatard - Painted Shut
07 Wooden Shjips - Shrinking moon for you
08 Nothing People - Cracked Actor
09 Land Action - Song for Michael Vick
10 Livefastdie - Sick as shit of shit
11 Fag Cop - My daddys got white trash friends
12 Civil Victim - Cop town
13 Needles - Blocked out
14 Barbaras - Summertime Road
15 Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Green cotton sweater (version)
16 Hearts of Animals - Stars Say No
17 Davila 666 - Basura
18 Box Elders - 2012
19 Plexi 3 - We Know Better

Snake Flower 2 Live at a party in SF 2007 by Canderson

One day when nobody’s watching – PHIL LEE

2009-01-18T10:45:00.007+01:00

Here’s a song that I must have played a thousand times; a wonderful declaration of love by former truck driver and honky tonk poet PHIL LEE. This song comes from his 1999 debut album ‘THE MIGHTY KING OF LOVE’ which Phil released when he was almost 50. Last year, his third record 'SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YOU' got rave reviews everywhere and – shame on me - I still do have to check that one out, as well as his second record from 2001. I think I’m gonna order both CD’s today because Phil Lee is what I call the real thing!

Do you ever wonder what it would feel like to be with me
the way I wonder what it would feel like to be with you?
Laying in a big old bed, doing things we shouldn’t do
saying some things better left unsaid

I know I shouldn’t say nothing,
I talk too much it’s true
One day when nobody’s watching
I’m gonna tell you how I feel about you

I guess you know I like you, anyone could tell I like you
well it goes a little deeper than that
Oh no, it’s not some whim, I know you’re dedicated to him
I will not interfere with that

One day you’re just gonna know it
It’ll come from out of the blue
One day when you least expect it
I’m gonna tell you how I feel about you

I know all of this is wrong, that’s why I’m leaving you all alone
it’s the honorable thing I do
And that’s not like me a bit, I’m known to take all I can get
all of that was before I met you

If you see me with some little honey
it’s gonna be just something to do
One day I’m gonna surprise you
I’m gonna tell you how I feel about you

I know I shouldn’t say nothing
I talk too much it’s true
One day when nobody’s watching
I’m gonna tell you how I feel about you
I’ll tell you that I’d like to touch you
I’ll tell you that I’d like to kiss you
One day when I should probably keep my big mouth shut
I’ll tell you that I do love you

One day when nobody’s watching – PHIL LEE mp3

Sons of the pioneer

2009-01-12T12:02:00.005+01:00

Tom and William Ravenscroft, sons of the late John Peel, were recently guests on Tom Robinson’s BBC 6 programme “Introducing with Tom Robinson”. Two hours of great new music by bands you’ve probably never heard of. You can listen to the show or download it here. For more info about Tom and William, visit the Unpredictable Porridge (William) or the Channel 4 (Tom) websites.

Here’s the tracklisting:
a.ICE, SEA, DEAD PEOPLE - Hence:Elvis
b.CRYSTAL ANTLERS - Vexation
c.TEP - Plouf
d.LARKIN GRIMM - Ride That Cyclone
e.2 HOT 2 SWEAT - Your Space or Mine
f.PAUL WHITE - For You and For Me
g.ASS - I've Been Here
h.FUCKDRESS - Suburban Nietzsche Freak
i.ZOMBY - Strange Fruit
j.DOC DELAY - 5
k.MIDORI HIRANO - Null
l.ELECTRICITY IN OUR HOMES - Some Marvels
m.ZOMES - zomes
n.KING OF SPAIN - Bacon
o.THE FRENCH QUARTER - Bold With Fire
p.FABULOUS DIAMONDS - LP3
q.ROLO TOMASSI - Oh Hello Ghost
r.THE LOST LEVELS - Early Sheets
s.VIVIAN GIRLS - Going Insane
t.ELLIOT WHALE BOY - Drain the River Drown the Tree
u.PHOSPHORESCENT - Wolves
v.PARTYSHANK - Penis Vs Vagina
w.SPHINCTERWOLF - Pemix

Music For Jackofficers

2009-01-08T20:03:00.007+01:00

Are you ready for the dancefloor? Here’s a link to an early 80's coldfunk, postpunk and electro compilation my pal Miguel has just made. Let me know if you dig it & I’ll ask Miguelito for more mixtapes!

Tracklisting:

01) Material - Disappearing
02) A Certain Ratio - Day One
03) Liquid Liquid - Cavern
04) 23 Skidoo - vegas el bandito
05) Pop Group - Justice
06) Spandau Ballet - Chant Number No 1
07) Tina Weymouth - Incognito
08) Pyrolator - Ein Weinachtsmann kommt in die Disko
09) Kraftwerk - Vitamin
10) The Slits - In the Beginning
11) Konk - Your life
12) Yello - Bostich
13) Quando Quango - Love tempo (remix)
14) Lora Logic - Stop, halt